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The former French president has declared that his time behind bars has been “exhausting” and an “ordeal” as he appeared via video link at a court hearing regarding his application to complete his jail term at home.

Court Appearance from Behind Bars

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

Context of the Case

Sarkozy was admitted to the correctional facility in Paris on 21 October, after receiving a five-year jail sentence for illegal collaboration over a scheme to obtain funds for his election bid 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 be incarcerated while the legal challenge took its course.

Unprecedented Significance

Sarkozy, who was France’s conservative leader 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

Sarkozy stated to the judges from prison: “I never had any idea or intention 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 ordeal that has been forced upon me. I admit it’s difficult, it’s very hard. It has an impact on any prisoner because it’s exhausting.”

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

Defense Lawyers Comments

His legal representative Jean-Michel Darrois, sitting next to him in the prison video link room, said: “Being in solitary confinement has been extremely difficult for him.” He commented on Sarkozy: “He’s a strong, robust 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 safer out of prison than within. “He has received threats against his life, has heard screaming at night and the emergency response in a adjacent room when a prisoner self-harmed,” he stated.

Current Status

The state prosecutor Damien Brunet requested that Sarkozy’s request for release be approved. The court will announce its decision on Monday afternoon.

Incarceration Details

Sarkozy has been placed in isolation for his own safety, in an private room of about 97 square feet, 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 meal might have been contaminated. He had been offered the facilities to cook for himself but refused this.

Encouragement from the Public

Sarkozy’s social media account last week posted a video of numerous correspondences, cards and parcels it claimed had been sent to him, including a collage, a sweet treat and a volume. “No correspondence will go without a response,” his account declared. “The end of the story has not yet been determined.”

Personal Belongings

The former leader took into prison a biography of Jesus as well as The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas’s novel in which an wrongly accused individual is imprisoned but escapes to take revenge.

Court Case 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 most unspeakable dictators of the last three decades.

The accused maintained his innocence and said he had not been involved in a criminal conspiracy 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 acquittals, Sarkozy will be re-tried on all the accusations next year, including criminal conspiracy.

Prior Legal Issues

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 separate cases and lost France’s highest distinction, the Légion d’honneur.

The former president had previously become the initial ex-leader forced to wear an monitoring device after being found guilty in a separate case of dishonesty 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 had the device for a quarter year before being allowed limited freedom.