DISGRACED former French president Nicholas Sarkozy has written a 216-page book detailing his 20 days in solidarity confinement – and it will be published next month.
The memoir, “Nicolas Sarkozy, The Journal of a Prisoner,” is due for release on December 10, publisher Fayard confirmed.
Sarkozy, 70, served less than three weeks at Paris’s notorious La Santé prison after being convicted of accepting illegal cash from late Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi to fund his 2007 presidential campaign.
He was handed a five-year prison sentence – the maximum for criminal conspiracy – but was released -pending appeal.
Despite spending just 20 days ion custody, Sarkozy has produced a book averaging nearly 11 pages per day of incarceration.
A teaser from the memoir was released by the publisher. It begins: “In prison, there is nothing to see, and nothing to do.”
He writes that “silence does not exist at La Santé” and that noise inside the jail “is alas constant.”
Sarkozy insists he was not broken by his time behind bars. “Like in the desert, inner life strengthens in prison,” he says.
The former leader was held alone in a 29-square-foot cell and separated from other inmates after receiving death threats.
Two police officers were assigned to the neighbouring cell around the clock to protect him from prisoners vowing to “avenge Gaddafi.”
Sarkozy described his time inside as a “nightmare” and pleaded with judges for early release.
The Paris appeals court approved his request on November 10, placing him under judicial supervision while his challenge continues.
He must wear an electronic tag and report to police while living back at his £5million home with his wife, former supermodel Carla Bruni, 57.
His son Louis reacted online after the ruling, writing: “Long live freedom.”
But Sarkozy has not been cleared. He could be returned to custody in March if his appeal fails.
Prosecutors previously described the offences as “extremely serious” but said the criminal code allowed temporary release.
During his first night in jail, inmates jeered and threatened him, with one video emerging online showing a prisoner shouting: “We know everything, Sarko… we know everything. Give back the billions of dollars.”
A spokesman for Paris prosecutors said: “Three inmates at the Santé prison were taken into custody following threats being made upon the arrival of Nicolas Sarkozy.
“An administrative search was carried out of their cells by the prison administration, during which two phones were seized.”
The spokesman said a formal investigation had been opened into “death threats”.
The three inmates were arrested over the threats.
Sarkozy reportedly refused to eat any meals prepared in the prison, fearing the food had been contaminated.
Instead, he lived mostly on tuna and yoghurts bought from the canteen.
A source told Le Point: “He doesn’t even know how to boil an egg! And, besides, on principle he refuses to do it.”
He kept a sports bag of belongings in his cell and swept the floor himself with a small broom.
Sarkozy told the court he had been a model inmate. “I scrupulously responded to all summonses,” he said. “This ordeal was imposed upon me – I endured it.”
He thanked prison staff for showing “exceptional humanity” and said they had helped make the “nightmare bearable.”
Sarkozy was the first former French head of state imprisoned since Nazi collaborator Marshal Philippe Pétain in 1945.
The conviction followed a three-month trial involving allegations he allowed intermediaries to channel Libyan money into his campaign.
He was acquitted of receiving stolen public funds and passive corruption but convicted of “criminal conspiracy.”
Throughout the trial he denied wrongdoing and blamed “liars and crooks” for the claims against him.
He insisted: “You will never find a single cent from Libya in the campaign.”
La Santé, where he was held, is one of France’s most notorious prisons, known for riots, squalid conditions and past guillotine executions.
Sarkozy could be sent back there if the appeal court upholds the original ruling in March.
