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Nicolas Sarkozy is preparing a memoir next month called A Prisoner’s Diary, which recounts his experience spent behind bars.

The revelation emerged less than two weeks after the ex-leader was released while he appeals the court ruling for unlawful coordination connected to efforts to secure presidential race money provided by the regime of the late Libyan dictator.

Prison Experience: Solitary Musings

“Behind bars there is nothing to see, with little to occupy time,” he writes in a preview, indicating the memoir is more about his thoughts while in seclusion rather than a broader observation on the packed and troubled French prison system.

“Silence escapes me, which doesn’t exist at the prison, where noise is a lot to hear,” he continues. “The noise unfortunately never stops. Yet, similar to barren lands, one’s inner world grows stronger while incarcerated.”

Release Hearing: Sharing the Struggle

At his release request hearing, the former leader had appeared by video link from inside the facility, characterizing his incarceration as draining. He stated to the judge: “I want to pay tribute those working in the jail, who are exceptionally humane, easing this difficult experience tolerable – because it is a nightmare.”

“I never imagined at this stage of life, I’d be in prison. It’s a trial that has been imposed on me. It’s challenging, I acknowledge, it’s very hard. It has an impact on any prisoner as it’s exhausting.”

First of Its Kind

Sarkozy, the ex-head of state between 2007 and 2012, became the inaugural ex-leader from the EU and the first postwar leader from France to experience jail.

Before entering jail he mentioned he would use his time to write a book.

Cell Library

It is not certain did he manage 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 classic tale, where a wrongfully accused individual is imprisoned later flees to seek vengeance.

Prison Conditions

The former leader remained in solitary confinement due to safety concerns in a cell roughly 100 square feet featuring a personal bathroom at the correctional facility in the city. Security personnel stayed in the next cell.

Reports indicated his diet consisted just yogurt during his stay because he feared prison cuisine could have been tampered with. Options were available to prepare his own meals but he turned this down, based on unnamed sources. It is uncertain if he will detail meals during incarceration.

Legal Perspective

His attorney, who visited his client daily while he was in prison, told the release hearing security would be better released compared to inside. “He has faced menacing messages, heard shouts during nighttime plus rapid actions in an adjacent room as a detainee harmed themselves.”

Case Background

His incarceration began on 21 October after a Paris court gave him a half-decade term for criminal conspiracy in connection with efforts to acquire election financing for his 2007 presidential race.

He denies wrongdoing challenging the decision, with a new trial set for early next year.