Lack of bright colours was the most memorable experience of Nicola Sarkozy's three week prison stint, with the former President of France convicted of illegal campaign funding, pending an appeal, recounting his recent Paris incarceration observations in a highly anticipated book.
According to pre-publication extracts gobbled up in the French press, the glamorous inmate 'was impressed by the absence of any colour, with grey virtually devouring surroundings, covering every surface', he tells in 'Diary of a Prisoner.'
Sarkozy emotionally remembers, ahead of book publication on Wednesday December 10th, how he kneeled to pray during the first night at Sante prison.
'I stayed prostrated for quite a few minutes. I prayed that I have the strength to lift the cross of this injustice,' he says, offering up a detailed account of his conversations with the prison vicar, who visited on Sundays.
The former President, number 320535, according to Le Figaro sources, also tells us what he ate, made up of 'dairy products, cereal bars, mineral water, apple juice and several kinds of cakes'.
In an interview with Le Figaro, Sarkozy disclosed how he 'wrote the book with a pen on a small plywood table,' giving up several pages at a time to his visiting lawyers to be typed up by his secretary. He almost finished the book in prison and concluded a few days after returning home under house arrest.
' I needed to answer this simple question, how did I reach this point?', pondering, as he said, on a strange life that led him into so many extreme situations.
Beyond his life confessional mood, Sarkozy is also highly political, strongly critising a number of politicians, including current President Macron, who charged him with 'turning away', as his predecessor was being convicted and imprisoned.
On September 25th, the 70 year former head of the French state, also found guilty in two separate cases, was convicted to five years in prison and a 100 thousand euro fine for illegally funding his 2007 election campaign from Libya's Qaddafi regime.
He was released three weeks later under severe restrictions. An appeal will be examined by the Paris Court of Appeals, in a hearing set to start on March 16 and lasting through to early June.
SOURCE-LE FIGARO