🔗 Share this article The Former French President Preparing to Release Jail Diary Detailing His 20 Days In Custody The ex-president of France is preparing a memoir in the coming weeks called Diary of a Prisoner, chronicling his experience endured behind bars. The revelation came shortly after the former president gained freedom as he contests the court ruling on charges of illegal collaboration in a case to acquire presidential race money linked to the leadership of former Libyan leader. Prison Experience: Inner Thoughts “Inside jail there is nothing to see, with little to occupy time,” he reflects in an extract, implying the memoir is more about his thoughts during seclusion rather than wider commentary on the overcrowded and crisis-hit French prison system. “Silence escapes me, which doesn’t exist in La Santé, where there is constant sound,” he continues. “The din unfortunately never stops. Yet, similar to barren lands, one’s inner world is fortified in prison.” Court Appearance: Recounting the Hardship During his plea for freedom, Sarkozy had appeared via screen from inside the facility, depicting prison life as exhausting. He stated to the judge: “I wish to commend those working in the jail, who are exceptionally humane, and who helped make this ordeal bearable – 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 I must endure. It’s challenging, I acknowledge, extremely tough. It has an impact on any prisoner because it’s gruelling.” Unprecedented Situation The former president, who served as France’s president for a five-year term, became the inaugural past president in the European Union and the first leader since WWII from France to be incarcerated. Prior to imprisonment he mentioned he would use his time for authoring a memoir. Books in Prison It remains unclear if he found the opportunity to review and analyze the texts he took into prison: a two-volume biography of Jesus together with Dumas’s work the famous story, a plot where a wrongfully accused individual ends up incarcerated then breaks out to seek vengeance. Life in Confinement He was placed secluded to protect him in a room approximately nine square meters featuring a personal bathroom in the Paris jail in Paris. Guards were stationed in an adjacent room. Sources mentioned that he had eaten only yoghurts in prison worried that meals provided might have been spat on. He had facilities to cook for himself yet he declined, according to reports. Unclear remains if he will detail what he ate in prison. Legal Perspective The legal representative, who visited his client each day during the incarceration, informed the court security would be better outside jail rather than in custody. “He received menacing messages, heard shouts after dark plus rapid actions in a neighbouring cell as a detainee harmed themselves.” Legal Proceedings His incarceration began last month after a Paris court imposed a half-decade term on conspiracy charges related to a plan to secure campaign funds for his 2007 presidential race. He disputes the charges and has appealed against the verdict, with a new trial planned for next spring.