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Nicolas Sarkozy plans a memoir next month titled A Prisoner’s Diary, chronicling his time spent in custody.

This news came less than two weeks after the ex-leader was released while his appeal proceeds his conviction for unlawful coordination in a case to acquire presidential race money from the government of Muammar Gaddafi.

Time in Custody: Inner Thoughts

“Inside jail one sees little, and nothing to do,” he writes in one passage, implying the memoir centers around his reflections while in isolation rather than wider commentary on the packed and struggling correctional facilities in the country.

“Quiet is absent, not present in that facility, where one hears endless commotion,” he adds. “The noise persists relentlessly. But, just like the desert, one’s inner world grows stronger behind bars.”

Freedom Plea: Sharing the Struggle

At his release request hearing, he was present by video link from his cell, describing his time inside as draining. He had told the court: “I want to pay tribute to all the prison staff, displaying remarkable compassion, easing this difficult experience tolerable – as it truly is one.”

“I didn’t expect that at 70 years of age, I’d find myself behind bars. It’s an ordeal that has been imposed on me. I confess it’s hard, extremely tough. It leaves a mark all who experience it due to its intensity.”

Unprecedented Situation

The former president, who led the nation from 2007 to 2012, became the inaugural past president in the European Union and the first postwar leader of France to be incarcerated.

Prior to imprisonment he declared he planned to utilize the opportunity for authoring a memoir.

Cell Library

Unconfirmed is whether he had time to go through the volumes he brought with him: a life story of Jesus spanning two books plus the novel by Dumas The Count of Monte Cristo, where an innocent man is imprisoned then breaks out to exact retribution.

Prison Conditions

Sarkozy was placed in isolation for his own security in a room approximately nine square meters featuring a personal bathroom at La Santé prison in Paris. Two bodyguards occupied an adjacent room.

Sources mentioned that he had eaten only yoghurts in prison due to concerns prison cuisine may have been contaminated. Although he had access for self-catering but refused this, based on unnamed sources. Not known is if the memoir includes what he ate in prison.

Defense Viewpoint

His attorney, who visited his client each day during the incarceration, told the release hearing his safety would improve out of prison compared to inside. “He has faced threats against his life, heard shouts at night plus rapid actions in an adjacent room when a prisoner self-harmed.”

Charges and Sentence

Sarkozy went to prison in late October following the judiciary imposed a five-year sentence for criminal conspiracy over a scheme to acquire election financing for his presidential bid.

He disputes the charges and is contesting the ruling, with a new trial set for early next year.