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The ex-president of France plans a memoir next month titled A Prisoner’s Diary, which recounts his time spent in custody.

This news came less than two weeks after the former president gained freedom while he appeals the court ruling on charges of criminal conspiracy connected to efforts to acquire presidential race money provided by the government of former Libyan leader.

Time in Custody: Solitary Musings

“Behind bars visibility is limited, with little to occupy time,” he reflects in a preview, implying the book is more about his musings from isolation as opposed to extensive analysis on the packed and crisis-hit correctional facilities in the country.

“I forget silence, not present in La Santé, where one hears a lot to hear,” he adds. “The noise is alas constant. Yet, similar to barren lands, inner life grows stronger while incarcerated.”

Freedom Plea: Recounting the Hardship

During his plea for freedom, he was present via screen from a room in prison, characterizing his incarceration as draining. He had told the court: “I wish to commend the correctional officers, showing great humanity, easing this ordeal manageable – as it truly is one.”

“It never crossed my mind that in my seventies, I’d find myself behind bars. It’s a hardship I must endure. I admit it’s difficult, deeply straining. It has an impact 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 postwar leader from France to be incarcerated.

Prior to imprisonment he mentioned he intended to spend the period for authoring a memoir.

Cell Library

It remains unclear if he found the opportunity to read and critique the volumes he took into prison: a biography of Jesus in two parts and Alexandre Dumas’s novel the classic tale, a plot where a wrongfully accused individual is sentenced to jail then breaks out to take revenge.

Prison Conditions

The former leader remained in isolation due to safety concerns in a space of about nine sq metres featuring a personal bathroom at the correctional facility in the city. Guards occupied a neighbouring cell.

Reports indicated that he had eaten just yogurt while inside because he feared meals provided could have been tampered with. Options were available to cook for himself yet he declined, based on unnamed sources. Not known is if the memoir includes meals during incarceration.

Defense Viewpoint

Sarkozy’s lawyer, who visited his client each day throughout the jail term, told the release hearing he would be safer out of prison than inside. “There were menacing messages, has heard screaming during nighttime plus rapid actions in an adjacent room during an inmate’s self-injury.”

Case Background

Sarkozy went to prison last month when a Paris court imposed five years in prison on conspiracy charges related to a plan to secure campaign funds for his 2007 presidential race.

He disputes the charges and is contesting the ruling, and another court case set for next spring.