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The ex-president of France plans a memoir this autumn named Diary of a Prisoner, detailing his experience served in jail.

This news came just 11 days after the ex-leader was released as he appeals the guilty verdict on charges of criminal conspiracy connected to efforts to secure presidential race money provided by the regime of the late Libyan dictator.

Prison Experience: Personal Reflections

“Behind bars one sees little, and activities are scarce,” he notes in an extract, suggesting the memoir centers around his musings during seclusion as opposed to a broader observation on the strained and struggling French prison system.

“I forget silence, which is missing in that facility, where one hears endless commotion,” he continues. “The din persists relentlessly. Yet, similar to barren lands, inner life is fortified in prison.”

Release Hearing: Recounting the Hardship

While appealing for release, Sarkozy had appeared via screen from inside the facility, characterizing his incarceration as gruelling. He stated to the judge: “I wish to commend to all the prison staff, who are exceptionally humane, and who helped make this nightmare tolerable – as it truly is one.”

“It never crossed my mind that at 70 years of age, I’d be in prison. It’s a hardship that has been imposed on me. It’s challenging, I acknowledge, it’s very hard. It leaves a mark on any prisoner because it’s gruelling.”

Unprecedented Situation

The former president, who led the nation between 2007 and 2012, set a precedent as former head in the European Union and the first leader since WWII in the French Republic to serve time in prison.

Prior to imprisonment he had said he intended to spend the period to write a book.

Reading Material

Unconfirmed is whether he had time to review and analyze the volumes he had in his cell: a two-volume biography of Jesus and Alexandre Dumas’s novel The Count of Monte Cristo, a plot where an innocent man ends up incarcerated but escapes to take revenge.

Prison Conditions

The former leader remained secluded for his own security in a room approximately nine square meters featuring a personal bathroom at the correctional facility located in the capital. Security personnel were stationed in an adjacent room.

Reports indicated that he had eaten just yogurt in prison worried that meals provided could have been tampered with. Although he had access to cook for himself but he turned this down, based on unnamed sources. Unclear remains if the memoir includes meals during incarceration.

Legal Perspective

His attorney, who saw him regularly each day during the incarceration, stated during proceedings security would be better outside jail rather than in custody. “He has faced menacing messages, has heard screaming at night plus rapid actions next door during an inmate’s self-injury.”

Case Background

Sarkozy went to prison on 21 October when the judiciary sentenced him to five years in prison for criminal conspiracy over a scheme to obtain campaign funds for his presidential bid.

He denies wrongdoing and has appealed against the verdict, with a new trial set for the coming spring.