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The former French president has stated that his stay in prison has been “exhausting” and an “ordeal” as he appeared via video link at a judicial proceeding regarding his request to serve his sentence at home.

Legal Proceeding from Prison

The former leader, wearing a navy blue suit, appeared on camera from jail on Monday, seated at a table with his lawyers beside him. He informed the judges: “I want to pay tribute to all the prison staff, who are exceptionally humane, and who have made this nightmare bearable – because it is a nightmare.”

Background of the Legal Situation

Sarkozy entered the correctional facility in Paris on 21 October, after being handed a half-decade imprisonment for illegal collaboration over a plan to obtain funds for his 2007 presidential election campaign from the government of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

He has appealed against the verdict, but judges ruled that because of the “serious nature” of his conviction, he had to be incarcerated while the appeals process proceeded.

Historical Importance

The former leader, 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.

Personal Statement

The former president told the court from prison: “I was completely unaware or desire to ask Mr Gaddafi for any kind of financing … I will never confess to something I am innocent of … I could not have foreseen that at 70 years of age, I’d be in prison. It’s an challenge that has been imposed on me. I admit it’s difficult, it’s extremely challenging. It has an impact on any prisoner because it’s exhausting.”

He said he would not try to communicate with any defendants or testifiers in the case. He declared: “I’m French, I am patriotic, my family is in France. This ordeal has made them suffer a lot.”

Defense Lawyers Comments

His legal representative Jean-Michel Darrois, sitting next to him in the remote connection facility, stated: “Being in solitary confinement has been extremely difficult for him.” He said of Sarkozy: “He’s a strong, durable and brave man and this detention has caused him great suffering.”

In court, a different legal representative, Christophe Ingrain, who had visited him every day, said Sarkozy would be more secure out of prison than within. “He has received threats against his life, has listened to shouts at night and the emergency response in a adjacent room when a prisoner injured themselves,” he said.

Present Situation

The state prosecutor Damien Brunet asked that Sarkozy’s request for release be approved. The court will reveal its ruling on Monday afternoon.

Prison Conditions

The former president has been placed in isolation for his own security, in an private room of about 9 sq metres, with his own shower and restroom. Security personnel are stationed nearby to ensure his safety.

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

Encouragement from Outside

His online presence last week posted a video of piles of letters, postcards and packages it said had been delivered to his attention, including a collection, a chocolate bar and a volume. “No letter will go without a response,” his account declared. “The final chapter has not yet been written.”

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 breaks out to take revenge.

Legal Proceedings Particulars

During Sarkozy’s three-month trial, the state attorney had told the court that Sarkozy entered into a “Faustian pact of corruption with one of the worst rulers of the last three decades.

Sarkozy denied wrongdoing and said he had not been involved in a criminal conspiracy to seek election funding from Libya.

He was acquitted of three separate charges 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 illegal collaboration.

Prior Legal Issues

Although the claims of a clandestine financial agreement with the Libyan regime formed the most significant legal case Sarkozy had encountered, he had already been convicted in two separate cases and stripped of France’s highest distinction, the national recognition.

The former president had previously become the first former French head of state forced to wear an electronic tag after being found guilty in a different matter of dishonesty and improper sway. In that case, he was given a 12-month sentence but was able to serve it with an ankle monitor attached to his leg. He wore the tag for three months before being granted conditional release.