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The ex-president of France plans a personal account next month named Notes from a Cell, detailing his time spent in jail.

The revelation came shortly after Sarkozy left prison while he appeals his conviction on charges of illegal collaboration regarding a scheme to secure election campaign funds linked to the government of former Libyan leader.

Prison Experience: Inner Thoughts

“Behind bars visibility is limited, and nothing to do,” he writes in an extract, implying the account centers around his musings from solitary confinement instead of a broader observation of the packed and struggling jail system in France.

“Silence escapes me, which is missing in La Santé, where one hears constant sound,” he states. “The din persists relentlessly. But, just like the desert, inner life is fortified while incarcerated.”

Court Appearance: Recounting the Hardship

At his release request hearing, the former leader was present via screen from inside the facility, depicting prison life as draining. He had told the court: “I wish to commend those working in the jail, displaying remarkable compassion, and who have made this ordeal bearable – because it is a nightmare.”

“It never crossed my mind that in my seventies, I’d be in prison. It’s a hardship forced upon me. It’s challenging, I acknowledge, extremely tough. It leaves a mark every inmate due to its intensity.”

Unprecedented Situation

He, who served as France’s president between 2007 and 2012, became the inaugural past president of an EU country and the initial post-WWII figure in the French Republic to be incarcerated.

Prior to imprisonment he mentioned he intended to spend the period to write a book.

Reading Material

Unconfirmed is did he manage to review and analyze the texts he had in his cell: a biography of Jesus in two parts together with Dumas’s work The Count of Monte Cristo, a plot where a wrongfully accused individual is imprisoned then breaks out to exact retribution.

Daily Reality

The former leader remained secluded due to safety concerns in a cell roughly 100 square feet including private facilities in the Paris jail in Paris. Security personnel occupied a neighbouring cell.

Sources mentioned his diet consisted only yoghurts during his stay worried that any food might have been spat on. He had facilities to cook for himself but refused this, as per accounts. Unclear remains if he will detail his dietary choices.

Lawyer’s Statements

His attorney, Christophe Ingrain every day throughout the jail term, stated during proceedings security would be better outside jail rather than in custody. “He has faced death threats, has heard screaming at night and emergency responses in an adjacent room during an inmate’s self-injury.”

Charges and Sentence

He entered custody last month after a French court gave him a half-decade term on conspiracy charges related to a plan to secure campaign funds for his presidential bid.

He denies wrongdoing and has appealed against the verdict, and another court case is scheduled for next spring.