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The ex-president of France plans a personal account this autumn titled Notes from a Cell, detailing the period endured in jail.

The announcement came less than two weeks after the ex-leader left prison while he appeals the guilty verdict related to criminal conspiracy in a case to obtain presidential race money from the leadership of the late Libyan dictator.

Life Behind Bars: Solitary Musings

“Behind bars one sees little, and nothing to do,” he writes in an extract, implying the book is more about his musings during solitary confinement rather than extensive analysis regarding the packed and struggling jail system in France.

“Silence escapes me, not present at the prison, where one hears a lot to hear,” he states. “The racket unfortunately never stops. Yet, similar to barren lands, inner life is strengthened while incarcerated.”

Release Hearing: Recounting the Hardship

While appealing for release, the former leader participated remotely from inside the facility, characterizing his incarceration as exhausting. He stated to the judge: “I want to pay tribute the correctional officers, showing great humanity, easing this difficult experience tolerable – as it truly is one.”

“It never crossed my mind that at 70 years of age, I’d find myself behind bars. It’s an ordeal forced upon me. It’s challenging, I acknowledge, deeply straining. It leaves a mark every inmate because it’s gruelling.”

First of Its Kind

The former president, the ex-head of state between 2007 and 2012, was the first ex-leader from the EU and the initial post-WWII figure in the French Republic to serve time in prison.

Ahead of his incarceration he mentioned he planned to utilize the opportunity to write a book.

Books in Prison

Unconfirmed is did he manage to go through the texts he took into prison: a two-volume biography of Jesus and Alexandre Dumas’s novel the famous story, in which an innocent man is sentenced to jail but escapes to take revenge.

Life in Confinement

He was placed secluded to protect him in a space approximately nine square meters with his own shower and toilet at the correctional facility in the city. Two bodyguards stayed in an adjacent room.

Sources mentioned that he had eaten just yogurt while inside due to concerns any food might have been spat on. Options were available to prepare his own meals but he turned this down, as per accounts. It is uncertain if he will detail what he ate in prison.

Lawyer’s Statements

The legal representative, who visited his client each day during the incarceration, told the release hearing security would be better outside jail compared to inside. “He has faced threats against his life, heard shouts at night plus rapid actions in an adjacent room as a detainee harmed themselves.”

Charges and Sentence

Sarkozy went to prison in late October when a French court sentenced him to five years in prison for criminal conspiracy in connection with efforts to secure campaign funds for his 2007 presidential race.

He disputes the charges and has appealed against the verdict, with a new trial is scheduled for next spring.