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Ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy has declared that his stay in prison has been “exhausting” and a “nightmare” as he was present via video link at a judicial proceeding regarding his request to complete his jail term at home.

Legal Proceeding from Behind Bars

Sarkozy, wearing a navy blue suit, appeared on camera from prison on Monday, positioned at a desk with his legal representatives beside him. He told the court: “I want to pay tribute to all the correctional officers, who are remarkably compassionate, 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 being handed a half-decade imprisonment for criminal conspiracy over a scheme to obtain funds for his 2007 presidential election campaign 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 legal challenge took its course.

Unprecedented Importance

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.

Personal Statement

The former president stated to the judges from prison: “I was completely unaware or intention to ask Mr Gaddafi for any kind of financing … I will not admit to something I am innocent of … I never imagined that at this stage of life, I’d be in prison. It’s an challenge that has been imposed on me. I admit it’s hard, it’s very hard. It leaves a mark on any prisoner because it’s gruelling.”

He said he would not try to communicate with any accused individuals or testifiers in the case. He said: “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 prison video link room, said: “Being in isolation has been very hard for him.” He commented on Sarkozy: “He’s a strong, durable and brave man and this detention has been very painful for him.”

In court, a different legal representative, Christophe Ingrain, who had visited him every day, asserted Sarkozy would be more secure out of prison than inside. “He has faced death threats, has heard screaming at night and the urgent intervention in a adjacent room when a prisoner injured themselves,” he said.

Current Status

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

Incarceration Details

The former president has been held in solitary confinement for his own safety, in an private room of about 9 sq metres, with his own washing facility and restroom. Two bodyguards are occupying a neighbouring cell to protect him.

Accounts indicated that he had been consuming solely yogurt in prison as he was concerned any meal might have been contaminated. He had been given the opportunity to cook for himself but declined the offer.

Support from Outside

His online presence last week shared a recording of numerous correspondences, postcards and packages it claimed had been sent to him, including a collage, a chocolate bar and a volume. “No letter will go without a response,” his account declared. “The end of the story has not yet been written.”

Items in Prison

Sarkozy brought with him a life story of Christ as well as the classic novel, Alexandre Dumas’s novel in which an innocent man is imprisoned but breaks out to seek retribution.

Court Case Details

During Sarkozy’s three-month trial, the state attorney had told the court that Sarkozy engaged in a “Faustian pact of dishonesty with one of the most unspeakable dictators of the last three decades.

Sarkozy maintained his innocence and said he had not been involved in a illegal scheme to obtain campaign finances from Libya.

He was acquitted of three distinct accusations of corruption, improper handling of state money and illegal election campaign funding. 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.

Previous Convictions

Although the claims of a secret campaign funding pact with the Libyan regime formed the biggest corruption trial Sarkozy had encountered, he had already been convicted in two different proceedings and lost 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 convicted in a different matter of corruption and influence peddling. In that situation, he was given a one-year jail term but was able to serve it with an ankle monitor worn around the ankle. He wore the tag for three months before being granted conditional release.