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Nicolas Sarkozy plans a personal account this autumn named A Prisoner’s Diary, chronicling his time spent behind bars.

This news came just 11 days after Sarkozy gained freedom as his appeal proceeds the court ruling related to unlawful coordination in a case to obtain presidential race money provided by the leadership of Muammar Gaddafi.

Prison Experience: Personal Reflections

“In prison one sees little, and nothing to do,” he notes in a preview, implying the book centers around his thoughts from isolation instead of extensive analysis regarding the overcrowded and crisis-hit correctional facilities in the country.

“Silence escapes me, not present in that facility, where there is endless commotion,” he continues. “The din persists relentlessly. But, just like the desert, one’s inner world grows stronger in prison.”

Court Appearance: Sharing the Struggle

While appealing for release, the former leader participated by video link from a room in prison, characterizing his incarceration as draining. He had told the court: “I wish to commend those working in the jail, showing great humanity, and who have made this ordeal tolerable – since it’s deeply troubling.”

“It never crossed my mind that in my seventies, 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 affects one all who experience it due to its intensity.”

Unprecedented Situation

Sarkozy, the ex-head of state between 2007 and 2012, set a precedent as former head in the European Union and the first leader since WWII from France to be incarcerated.

Before entering jail he declared he intended to spend the period for authoring a memoir.

Cell Library

Unconfirmed is if he found the opportunity to review and analyze the three books he had in his cell: a life story of Jesus spanning two books and Alexandre Dumas’s novel The Count of Monte Cristo, in which a blameless person ends up incarcerated but escapes to exact retribution.

Prison Conditions

He remained in solitary confinement for his own security in a cell of about nine sq metres featuring a personal bathroom in the Paris jail in the city. Security personnel stayed in an adjacent room.

Sources mentioned that he had eaten only yoghurts during his stay due to concerns meals provided may have been contaminated. He had facilities to prepare his own meals but he turned this down, based on unnamed sources. It is uncertain if the memoir includes what he ate in prison.

Legal Perspective

Sarkozy’s lawyer, Christophe Ingrain daily throughout the jail term, told the release hearing his safety would improve outside jail compared to inside. “There were death threats, heard shouts during nighttime and emergency responses in an adjacent room when a prisoner self-harmed.”

Charges and Sentence

Sarkozy went to prison last month after a Paris court gave him a half-decade term for illegal collaboration related to a plan to obtain political donations for his presidential bid.

He denies wrongdoing and is contesting the ruling, with a new trial planned for early next year.