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Nicolas Sarkozy plans a book in the coming weeks titled Diary of a Prisoner, detailing his experience spent in custody.

The announcement came shortly following Sarkozy was released while he contests his conviction related to illegal collaboration regarding a scheme to acquire election campaign funds provided by the leadership of former Libyan leader.

Prison Experience: Solitary Musings

“In prison there is nothing to see, and nothing to do,” he writes in a preview, indicating the memoir centers around his thoughts while in seclusion as opposed to wider commentary of the strained and struggling French prison system.

“I forget silence, which doesn’t exist at the prison, where there is endless commotion,” he adds. “The noise unfortunately never stops. However, akin to empty spaces, one’s inner world is fortified in prison.”

Court Appearance: Recounting the Hardship

During his plea for freedom, Sarkozy was present remotely from inside the facility, characterizing his incarceration as draining. He stated to the judge: “I want to pay tribute those working in the jail, displaying remarkable compassion, easing this difficult experience bearable – because it is a nightmare.”

“It never crossed my mind that at 70 years of age, I’d be in prison. It’s an ordeal forced upon me. It’s challenging, I acknowledge, extremely tough. It has an impact every inmate as it’s exhausting.”

Unprecedented Situation

He, the ex-head of state between 2007 and 2012, became the inaugural ex-leader of an EU country and the first leader since WWII in the French Republic to experience jail.

Ahead of his incarceration he declared he would use his time to compose an account.

Reading Material

It remains unclear whether he had time to go through the texts he had in his cell: a two-volume biography of Jesus together with Dumas’s work the famous story, where a wrongfully accused individual ends up incarcerated then breaks out to exact retribution.

Life in Confinement

The former leader was placed in isolation to protect him in a space of about nine sq metres with his own shower and toilet in the Paris jail in the city. Two bodyguards occupied the next cell.

Sources mentioned that he consumed only yoghurts in prison worried that meals provided could have been tampered with. Although he had access for self-catering but he turned this down, based on unnamed sources. Not known is whether Sarkozy will write about his dietary choices.

Defense Viewpoint

Sarkozy’s lawyer, who visited his client each day throughout the jail term, told the release hearing his safety would improve out of prison compared to inside. “There were menacing messages, listened to yells after dark and emergency responses in an adjacent room as a detainee harmed themselves.”

Charges and Sentence

His incarceration began in late October when a French court sentenced him to a five-year sentence for illegal collaboration related to a plan to secure political donations during his election campaign.

He denies wrongdoing and is contesting the ruling, and another court case planned for early next year.