Ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy has declared that his period of incarceration has been “gruelling” and a “nightmare” as he was present via remote connection at a judicial proceeding regarding his application to complete his jail term at home.
Sarkozy, dressed in a dark blue attire, appeared on camera from jail on Monday, seated at a table with his legal representatives beside him. He told the court: “I want to commend all the prison staff, who are exceptionally humane, and who have made this nightmare bearable – because it is a nightmare.”
The former president entered the correctional facility in Paris on 21 October, after being handed a half-decade imprisonment for criminal conspiracy over a plan to secure financing for his election bid from the government of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
He has challenged the ruling, but the court ruled that because of the “exceptional gravity” of his conviction, he had to go to prison while the legal challenge took its course.
Sarkozy, who served as France’s rightwing president between 2007 and 2012, is the first former head of an EU country to serve time in prison, and the first French postwar leader to go behind bars.
The former president stated to the judges from prison: “I never had any idea or desire to ask Mr Gaddafi for any kind of financing … I will not admit to something I didn’t do … I never imagined that at this stage of life, I’d be in prison. It’s an ordeal that has been forced upon me. I confess it’s hard, it’s very hard. It leaves a mark on any prisoner because it’s exhausting.”
He said he would not attempt to enter into contact with any accused individuals or witnesses in the case. He declared: “I’m French, I love my country, my family is in France. This ordeal has made them suffer a lot.”
His legal representative Jean-Michel Darrois, sitting next to him in the prison video link room, said: “Being in solitary confinement has been extremely difficult for him.” He commented on Sarkozy: “He’s a strong, robust and courageous man and this detention has been very painful for him.”
In court, another of Sarkozy’s lawyers, Christophe Ingrain, who had seen him daily, asserted Sarkozy would be safer outside jail than within. “He has faced death threats, has heard screaming at night and the emergency response in a neighbouring cell when a prisoner injured themselves,” he stated.
The state prosecutor Damien Brunet requested that Sarkozy’s request for release be approved. The court will reveal its ruling on Monday afternoon.
Sarkozy has been held in solitary confinement for his own security, in an individual cell of about 97 square feet, with his own washing facility and toilet. Two bodyguards are stationed nearby to ensure his safety.
Reports indicated that he had been consuming solely yogurt in prison as he was concerned any food might have been contaminated. He had been given the opportunity to cook for himself but refused this.
Sarkozy’s social media account last week shared a recording of numerous correspondences, cards and packages it claimed had been sent to him, including a collection, a sweet treat and a volume. “No correspondence will go without a response,” his account announced. “The end of the story has not yet been written.”
The former leader took into prison a biography of Jesus as well as The Count of Monte Cristo, the famous work in which an innocent man is imprisoned but breaks out to seek retribution.
During the lengthy court case, the state attorney had told the court that Sarkozy entered into a “corrupt agreement” of dishonesty with one of the most unspeakable dictators of the last three decades.
Sarkozy denied wrongdoing and stated he had not been part of a illegal scheme to seek election funding from Libya.
He was found not guilty of three distinct accusations of corruption, misuse of Libyan public funds and illegal election campaign funding. After the public attorney also challenged these acquittals, Sarkozy will be judged again on all the accusations next year, including illegal collaboration.
Although the allegations of a clandestine financial agreement with the Libyan regime formed the biggest corruption trial Sarkozy had faced, he had already been found guilty in two different proceedings and lost France’s highest distinction, the Légion d’honneur.
The former president had previously become the initial ex-leader forced to wear an monitoring device after being convicted in a different matter of corruption and improper sway. In that situation, he was given a one-year jail term but was able to complete it with an ankle monitor attached to his leg. He had the device for three months before being granted conditional release.
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