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The former French president has asserted that his time behind bars has been “draining” and a “nightmare” as he appeared via remote connection at a court hearing regarding his application to serve his sentence at home.

Legal Proceeding from Prison

The former leader, dressed in a dark blue attire, appeared on camera from prison on Monday, positioned at a desk 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 eased this difficult situation – because it is a nightmare.”

Context of the Case

Sarkozy was admitted to La Santé prison in Paris on 21 October, after receiving a half-decade imprisonment for criminal conspiracy over a plan to secure financing for his 2007 presidential election campaign from the government of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

He has appealed against the verdict, but the court ruled that because of the “exceptional gravity” of his conviction, he had to go to prison while the appeals process proceeded.

Unprecedented Significance

Sarkozy, who was France’s rightwing president between 2007 and 2012, is the initial ex-leader of an EU country to serve time in prison, and the first French postwar leader to go behind bars.

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 didn’t do … I could not have foreseen that at this stage of life, I’d be in prison. It’s an challenge 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 gruelling.”

He said 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 situation has caused them pain a lot.”

Legal Team Observations

Sarkozy’s lawyer Jean-Michel Darrois, sitting next to him in the remote connection facility, stated: “Being in isolation has been extremely difficult for him.” He said of Sarkozy: “He’s a resilient, durable and courageous man and this imprisonment has caused him great suffering.”

In court, another of Sarkozy’s lawyers, Christophe Ingrain, who had visited him every day, asserted Sarkozy would be safer outside jail 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.

Present Situation

The public attorney 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 placed in isolation for his own security, in an individual cell of about 9 sq metres, with his own shower and toilet. Two bodyguards are stationed nearby to ensure his safety.

Accounts suggested 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 prepare his own meals but refused this.

Encouragement from Outside

Sarkozy’s social media account last week shared a video of numerous correspondences, cards and parcels it said had been sent to him, including a collection, a chocolate bar and a volume. “No letter will go unanswered,” his account announced. “The end of the story has not yet been determined.”

Items in Prison

The former leader brought with him a biography of Jesus as well as the classic novel, Alexandre Dumas’s novel in which an innocent man is sentenced to jail but escapes to take revenge.

Legal Proceedings Details

During Sarkozy’s three-month trial, the state attorney had informed the judges that Sarkozy entered into a “Faustian pact of dishonesty with one of the worst rulers of the last 30 years.

Sarkozy denied wrongdoing and stated he had not been part of a criminal conspiracy to obtain campaign finances from Libya.

He was found not guilty of three distinct accusations of corruption, misuse of Libyan public funds and unlawful political financing. After the state prosecutor also appealed against 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 clandestine financial agreement with the Libyan regime formed the biggest corruption trial Sarkozy had faced, he had already been found guilty 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 corruption and influence peddling. In that case, he was given a 12-month sentence but was able to serve it with an electronic tag worn around the ankle. He had the device for a quarter year before being allowed limited freedom.