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The ex-president of France is preparing a memoir in the coming weeks called Notes from a Cell, chronicling his experience spent behind bars.

This news was made shortly following the former president gained freedom while he contests his conviction for illegal collaboration regarding a scheme to obtain political financing provided by the government of Muammar Gaddafi.

Time in Custody: Solitary Musings

“Behind bars there is nothing to see, and nothing to do,” he notes in a preview, implying the account centers around his thoughts from solitary confinement instead of extensive analysis regarding the strained and struggling French prison system.

“I forget silence, which is missing at the prison, where there is constant sound,” he continues. “The noise persists relentlessly. However, akin to empty spaces, inner life is strengthened while incarcerated.”

Court Appearance: Recounting the Hardship

While appealing for release, he had appeared by video link from his cell, describing his time inside as draining. He expressed in court: “I want to pay tribute to all the prison staff, showing great humanity, easing this difficult experience bearable – as it truly is one.”

“I didn’t expect that at 70 years of age, I’d find myself behind bars. It’s a trial I must endure. I admit it’s difficult, deeply straining. It affects one every inmate as it’s exhausting.”

First of Its Kind

Sarkozy, who served as France’s president for a five-year term, set a precedent as former head of an EU country and the first leader since WWII of France to be incarcerated.

Ahead of his incarceration he declared he intended to spend the period for authoring a memoir.

Reading Material

It remains unclear whether he had time to review and analyze the three books he took into prison: a two-volume biography of Jesus together with Dumas’s work the classic tale, in which a blameless person ends up incarcerated but escapes to take revenge.

Life in Confinement

Sarkozy was placed in solitary confinement to protect him in a room roughly 100 square feet featuring a personal bathroom in the Paris jail located in the capital. Guards were stationed in an adjacent room.

Sources mentioned his diet consisted solely dairy snacks in prison due to concerns prison cuisine may have been contaminated. Options were available to cook for himself but he turned this down, based on unnamed sources. Unclear remains whether Sarkozy will write about his dietary choices.

Legal Perspective

His attorney, who visited his client every day throughout the jail term, told the release hearing he would be safer out of prison than inside. “He has faced threats against his life, listened to yells at night plus rapid actions in an adjacent room when a prisoner self-harmed.”

Charges and Sentence

Sarkozy went to prison in late October when a Paris court sentenced him to five years in prison for criminal conspiracy related to a plan to secure political donations during his election campaign.

He maintains his innocence challenging the decision, with a new trial set for next spring.