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

The revelation emerged just 11 days following Sarkozy left prison while he contests his conviction related to illegal collaboration in a case to secure political financing linked to the regime of former Libyan leader.

Time in Custody: Personal Reflections

“Behind bars there is nothing to see, and activities are scarce,” he notes in one passage, suggesting the account centers around his musings from isolation as opposed to wider commentary regarding the overcrowded and crisis-hit French prison system.

“I forget silence, which doesn’t exist in that facility, where noise is a lot to hear,” he adds. “The noise persists relentlessly. But, just like the desert, personal reflection grows stronger while incarcerated.”

Freedom Plea: Recounting the Hardship

While appealing for release, he participated via screen from a room in prison, characterizing his incarceration as draining. He expressed in court: “I wish to commend those working in the jail, showing great humanity, easing this difficult experience manageable – as it truly is one.”

“I didn’t expect at this stage of life, I’d be in prison. It’s a trial I must endure. It’s challenging, I acknowledge, deeply straining. It affects one all who experience it because it’s gruelling.”

First of Its Kind

Sarkozy, the ex-head of state for a five-year term, became the inaugural ex-leader from the EU and the first leader since WWII from France to experience jail.

Ahead of his incarceration he had said he planned to utilize the opportunity for authoring a memoir.

Cell Library

It remains unclear whether he had time to review and analyze the three books he brought with him: a life story of Jesus spanning two books together with Dumas’s work The Count of Monte Cristo, a plot where a wrongfully accused individual is imprisoned then breaks out to exact retribution.

Prison Conditions

He was placed in solitary confinement due to safety concerns in a room approximately nine square meters with his own shower and toilet at the correctional facility located in the capital. Security personnel stayed in an adjacent room.

It was stated his diet consisted only yoghurts in prison due to concerns any food could have been tampered with. Options were available to prepare his own meals yet he declined, based on unnamed sources. Unclear remains if he will detail meals during incarceration.

Lawyer’s Statements

His attorney, who saw him regularly daily throughout the jail term, told the release hearing security would be better released than inside. “He received menacing messages, heard shouts after dark and the urgent intervention in an adjacent room when a prisoner self-harmed.”

Legal Proceedings

He entered custody last month following a French court gave him five years in prison for illegal collaboration over a scheme to obtain campaign funds for his presidential bid.

He maintains his innocence and has appealed against the verdict, and a fresh trial set for next spring.