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Ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy has declared that his time behind bars has been “gruelling” and an “ordeal” as he was present via video link at a judicial proceeding regarding his request to complete his jail term at home.

Legal Proceeding from Prison

The former leader, dressed in a dark blue attire, appeared on camera from prison on Monday, seated at a table with his lawyers beside him. He informed the judges: “I want to commend all the prison staff, who are exceptionally humane, and who have made this nightmare bearable – because it is a horrific experience.”

Context of the Case

The former president entered La Santé prison in Paris on 21 October, after receiving a five-year jail sentence for criminal conspiracy over a scheme to secure financing for his election bid from the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

He has appealed against the ruling, but the court ruled that because of the “exceptional gravity” of his conviction, he had to be incarcerated while the legal challenge proceeded.

Unprecedented Significance

Sarkozy, who was France’s rightwing president between 2007 and 2012, is the first former head of an EU country to be imprisoned in prison, and the first French postwar leader to be incarcerated.

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 forced upon me. I admit it’s hard, 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 accused individuals 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

Sarkozy’s lawyer Jean-Michel Darrois, sitting next to him in the prison video link room, stated: “Being in isolation has been very hard for him.” He said of Sarkozy: “He’s a resilient, robust and brave man and this imprisonment has been very painful for him.”

In court, a different legal representative, Christophe Ingrain, who had seen him daily, asserted Sarkozy would be safer outside jail than inside. “He has received threats against his life, has listened to shouts at night and the emergency response in a neighbouring cell when a prisoner self-harmed,” he said.

Present Situation

The state prosecutor Damien Brunet asked that Sarkozy’s petition for freedom be granted. The court will reveal its ruling on Monday afternoon.

Prison Conditions

The former president has been held in solitary confinement for his own safety, in an individual cell of about 97 square feet, with his own shower and toilet. Security personnel are occupying a neighbouring cell to ensure his safety.

Reports indicated that he had been consuming solely yogurt in prison as he feared any meal might have been tampered with. He had been given the opportunity to prepare his own meals but declined the offer.

Support from the Public

Sarkozy’s social media account last week posted a video of numerous correspondences, postcards and packages it said had been delivered to his attention, including a collection, a sweet treat and a book. “No letter will go unanswered,” his account announced. “The end of the story has not yet been written.”

Personal Belongings

The former leader brought with him a biography of Jesus as well as the classic novel, the famous work in which an wrongly accused individual is imprisoned but escapes to take revenge.

Court Case 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 illegal scheme to obtain campaign finances from Libya.

He was acquitted of three separate charges of corruption, misuse of Libyan public funds and unlawful political financing. After the public attorney also appealed against these not guilty verdicts, Sarkozy will be judged again on all the charges next year, including illegal collaboration.

Prior Legal Issues

Although the allegations of a clandestine financial agreement with the Libyan regime formed the most significant legal case Sarkozy had faced, he had already been found guilty in two separate cases and stripped of France’s top honor, the Légion d’honneur.

Sarkozy had previously become the first former French head of state forced to wear an monitoring device after being found guilty in a separate case of dishonesty and influence peddling. In that case, he was given a one-year jail term but was able to serve it with an ankle monitor worn around the ankle. He had the device for a quarter year before being granted conditional release.