Nicolas Sarkozy Characterizes Life in Jail as ‘Draining’ and ‘a Nightmare’
Ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy has stated that his stay in prison has been “exhausting” and a “horrific experience” as he appeared via video link at a judicial proceeding regarding his application to serve his sentence at home.
Legal Proceeding from Prison
Sarkozy, wearing a dark blue attire, was visible on screen from jail on Monday, seated at a table with his legal representatives beside him. He told the court: “I want to pay tribute to all the prison staff, who are remarkably compassionate, and who have eased this difficult situation – because it is a nightmare.”
Context of the Case
The former president entered the correctional facility in Paris on 21 October, after receiving a five-year jail sentence for illegal collaboration over a plan to secure financing for his election bid from the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
He has appealed against the ruling, but the court ruled that because of the “serious nature” of his conviction, he had to go to prison while the legal challenge proceeded.
Unprecedented Importance
The former leader, who was France’s conservative leader between 2007 and 2012, is the first former head of an EU country to be imprisoned in prison, and the first French postwar leader to be incarcerated.
Emotional Testimony
The former president stated to the judges from prison: “I never had any idea or intention to ask Mr Gaddafi for any kind of financing … I will not admit to something I am innocent of … I could not have foreseen that at this stage of life, I’d be in prison. It’s an challenge that has been forced upon me. I admit it’s difficult, it’s extremely challenging. It leaves a mark on any prisoner because it’s exhausting.”
He stated he would not try to communicate with any defendants or testifiers in the case. He declared: “I’m French, I love my country, my family is in France. This ordeal has caused them pain a lot.”
Legal Team Comments
Sarkozy’s lawyer Jean-Michel Darrois, sitting next to him in the remote connection facility, said: “Being in solitary confinement has been very hard for him.” He commented on Sarkozy: “He’s a resilient, robust and courageous man and this imprisonment has caused him great suffering.”
In court, a different legal representative, Christophe Ingrain, who had seen him daily, said Sarkozy would be safer outside jail than inside. “He has received threats against his life, has heard screaming at night and the urgent intervention in a neighbouring cell when a prisoner injured themselves,” he stated.
Current Status
The state prosecutor Damien Brunet asked that Sarkozy’s petition for freedom be approved. The court will reveal its ruling on Monday afternoon.
Prison Conditions
Sarkozy has been held in solitary confinement for his own security, in an private room of about 9 sq metres, with his own shower and restroom. Two bodyguards are occupying a neighbouring cell to protect him.
Accounts suggested that he had been eating only yoghurt in prison as he feared any meal might have been tampered with. He had been given the opportunity to cook for himself but refused this.
Support from Outside
His online presence last week posted a recording of numerous correspondences, postcards and packages it claimed had been sent to him, including a collection, a sweet treat and a volume. “No letter will go without a response,” his account declared. “The end of the story has not yet been determined.”
Personal Belongings
The former leader took into prison a biography of Jesus as well as the classic novel, Alexandre Dumas’s novel in which an wrongly accused individual is sentenced to jail but escapes to take revenge.
Legal Proceedings Particulars
During Sarkozy’s three-month trial, the state attorney had informed the judges that Sarkozy engaged in a “Faustian pact of dishonesty with one of the worst rulers of the last three decades.
Sarkozy maintained his innocence and said he had not been part of a illegal scheme to obtain campaign finances from Libya.
He was found not guilty of three separate charges of dishonesty, misuse of Libyan public funds and illegal election campaign funding. After the public attorney also challenged these acquittals, Sarkozy will be re-tried on all the charges next year, including criminal conspiracy.
Previous Convictions
Although the allegations of a clandestine financial agreement with the Libyan regime formed the biggest corruption trial Sarkozy had encountered, he had already been found guilty in two different proceedings and lost France’s highest distinction, the Légion d’honneur.
Sarkozy had previously become the initial ex-leader forced to wear an electronic tag after being found guilty in a different matter of dishonesty and influence peddling. In that situation, he was given a one-year jail term but was able to complete it with an ankle monitor worn around the ankle. He had the device for a quarter year before being granted conditional release.
