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The former French president has declared that his stay in prison has been “gruelling” and a “nightmare” as he was present via video link at a court hearing regarding his request to serve his sentence at home.

Court Appearance from Prison

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

Background of the Case

Sarkozy was admitted to the correctional facility in Paris on 21 October, after receiving a five-year jail sentence for criminal conspiracy over a scheme to secure financing for his 2007 presidential election campaign from the government of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

He has challenged the verdict, but judges ruled that because of the “exceptional gravity” of his guilty verdict, he had to be incarcerated while the legal challenge took its course.

Unprecedented 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 initial leader since WWII to be incarcerated.

Emotional Testimony

The former president stated to the judges 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 never imagined 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 hard, it’s extremely challenging. It leaves a mark on any prisoner because it’s gruelling.”

He stated 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 situation has caused them pain a lot.”

Defense Lawyers Comments

Sarkozy’s lawyer Jean-Michel Darrois, sitting next to him in the remote connection facility, said: “Being in isolation has been very hard for him.” He commented on Sarkozy: “He’s a strong, robust and courageous man and this detention has been very painful for him.”

In court, another of Sarkozy’s lawyers, Christophe Ingrain, who had seen him daily, said Sarkozy would be safer outside jail than inside. “He has received threats against his life, has heard screaming 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 approved. The court will announce its decision on Monday afternoon.

Incarceration Details

The former president has been held in solitary confinement for his own safety, in an private room of about 97 square feet, with his own washing facility and restroom. Two bodyguards are occupying a neighbouring cell to ensure his safety.

Reports suggested that he had been eating only yoghurt in prison as he feared any food might have been tampered with. He had been offered the facilities to cook for himself but refused this.

Support from Outside

His online presence last week posted a video of piles of letters, cards and packages it claimed had been sent to him, including a collection, a sweet treat and a volume. “No correspondence will go without a response,” his account announced. “The final chapter has not yet been written.”

Items in Prison

Sarkozy took into prison a life story of Christ as well as the classic novel, Alexandre Dumas’s novel in which an wrongly accused individual is imprisoned but breaks out to seek retribution.

Court Case Particulars

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

The accused 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 dishonesty, improper handling of state money and illegal election campaign funding. After the public attorney also challenged these not guilty verdicts, Sarkozy will be re-tried on all the charges next year, including illegal collaboration.

Previous Convictions

Although the claims of a secret campaign funding pact with the North African government 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 initial ex-leader forced to wear an electronic tag after being found guilty in a separate case of corruption and improper sway. In that case, he was given a one-year jail term but was able to serve it with an electronic tag worn around the ankle. He had the device for a quarter year before being granted conditional release.