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Nicolas Sarkozy plans a memoir next month titled Notes from a Cell, chronicling his experience endured in custody.

The announcement was made shortly following the former president gained freedom while his appeal proceeds the guilty verdict related to criminal conspiracy connected to efforts to acquire election campaign funds provided by the government of former Libyan leader.

Life Behind Bars: Inner Thoughts

“Behind bars there is nothing to see, and activities are scarce,” he notes in a preview, indicating the memoir will focus on his thoughts during seclusion as opposed to a broader observation of the packed and crisis-hit correctional facilities in the country.

“Quiet is absent, not present in La Santé, where noise is endless commotion,” he continues. “The din is alas constant. Yet, similar to barren lands, inner life is fortified while incarcerated.”

Court Appearance: Sharing the Struggle

During his plea for freedom, the former leader had appeared via screen from inside the facility, characterizing his incarceration as exhausting. He expressed in court: “I wish to commend those working in the jail, showing great humanity, and who helped make this difficult experience bearable – since it’s deeply troubling.”

“It never crossed my mind that in my seventies, I’d be in prison. It’s a hardship forced upon me. I confess it’s hard, it’s very hard. It leaves a mark every inmate due to its intensity.”

First of Its Kind

He, who led the nation between 2007 and 2012, became the inaugural former head in the European Union and the first leader since WWII of France to experience jail.

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

Books in Prison

Unconfirmed is whether he had time to go through the volumes he had in his cell: a two-volume biography of Jesus and Alexandre Dumas’s novel the famous story, in which an innocent man is sentenced to jail then breaks out to seek vengeance.

Life in Confinement

Sarkozy was held in isolation for his own security in a cell of about nine sq metres with his own shower and toilet in the Paris jail in Paris. Security personnel occupied a neighbouring cell.

Sources mentioned that he had eaten just yogurt in prison due to concerns prison cuisine could have been tampered with. He had facilities to prepare his own meals but he turned this down, based on unnamed sources. Unclear remains if the memoir includes what he ate in prison.

Legal Perspective

The legal representative, Christophe Ingrain each day throughout the jail term, informed the court security would be better released than inside. “He received threats against his life, heard shouts at night and the urgent intervention in an adjacent room when a prisoner self-harmed.”

Charges and Sentence

He entered custody last month when a French court gave him a half-decade term for criminal conspiracy over a scheme to obtain campaign funds during his election campaign.

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