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Ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy has declared that his time behind bars has been “gruelling” and a “nightmare” as he appeared via remote connection at a judicial proceeding regarding his petition to complete his jail term at home.

Court Appearance from Prison

Sarkozy, wearing a navy blue suit, was visible on screen from jail on Monday, positioned at a desk with his lawyers beside him. He informed the judges: “I want to commend all the correctional officers, who are exceptionally humane, and who have made this nightmare bearable – because it is a nightmare.”

Context of the Legal Situation

Sarkozy entered the correctional facility in Paris on 21 October, after receiving a half-decade imprisonment for illegal collaboration over a plan to obtain funds for his election bid from the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

He has appealed against the verdict, but judges ruled that because of the “exceptional gravity” of his conviction, he had to be incarcerated while the appeals process took its course.

Historical Significance

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 be incarcerated.

Emotional Testimony

Sarkozy told the court 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 didn’t do … I could not have foreseen that at 70 years of age, I’d be in prison. It’s an ordeal that has been imposed on me. I confess it’s difficult, it’s very hard. It has an impact on any prisoner because it’s exhausting.”

He stated he would not try to communicate with any defendants or witnesses in the case. He said: “I’m French, I love my country, my family is in France. This situation has caused them pain a lot.”

Legal Team Comments

His legal representative Jean-Michel Darrois, positioned beside him in the prison video link room, stated: “Being in solitary confinement has been very hard for him.” He commented on Sarkozy: “He’s a resilient, robust and brave man and this detention has caused him great suffering.”

In court, another of Sarkozy’s lawyers, Christophe Ingrain, who had seen him daily, said Sarkozy would be safer out of prison than within. “He has received threats against his life, has listened to shouts at night and the urgent intervention in a adjacent room when a prisoner self-harmed,” he said.

Current Status

The public attorney Damien Brunet asked that Sarkozy’s request for release be granted. The court will reveal its ruling on Monday afternoon.

Incarceration Details

The former president has been placed in isolation for his own security, in an individual cell of about 97 square feet, with his own washing facility and toilet. Security personnel are occupying a neighbouring cell to protect him.

Accounts suggested that he had been consuming solely yogurt in prison as he was concerned any meal might have been tampered with. He had been offered the facilities to prepare his own meals but declined the offer.

Encouragement from the Public

His online presence last week shared a video of piles of letters, postcards and parcels it said had been sent to him, including a collection, a chocolate bar and a book. “No letter will go unanswered,” his account declared. “The final chapter has not yet been determined.”

Items in Prison

The former leader took into prison a biography of Jesus as well as The Count of Monte Cristo, the famous work in which an wrongly accused individual is imprisoned but breaks out to seek retribution.

Court Case Details

During the lengthy court case, the public prosecutor had informed the judges that Sarkozy entered into a “Faustian pact of corruption with one of the worst rulers of the last 30 years.

Sarkozy denied wrongdoing and stated he had not been involved in a illegal scheme to obtain campaign finances from Libya.

He was found not guilty of three distinct accusations of corruption, improper handling of state money and unlawful political financing. After the public attorney also challenged these not guilty verdicts, Sarkozy will be re-tried on all the charges next year, including criminal conspiracy.

Previous Convictions

Although the allegations of a secret campaign funding pact with the North African government formed the most significant legal case Sarkozy had faced, he had already been convicted in two separate cases and stripped of 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 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 a quarter year before being granted conditional release.