{"id":216714,"date":"2025-12-10T14:27:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T10:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/?p=216714"},"modified":"2025-12-10T14:43:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T10:43:39","slug":"welcome-to-hell-sarkozys-prison-memoir-hits-shelves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/en\/news\/216714\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Welcome to hell\u2019: Sarkozy\u2019s prison memoir hits shelves"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s prison memoir hits shelves today. In it, he describes his 20-day prison stay, Euronews<\/a> writes.<\/p>\n

The 216-page-long prison memoir (that’s about 11 pages per day of incarceration) describes La Santé prison as a noisy, harsh “all-grey” world of “inhuman violence”.<\/p>\n

It’s worth reminding that Sarkozy was held in solitary confinement and kept strictly away from other inmates for security reasons.<\/p>\n

Sarkozy writes that his cell looked like a “low-end hotel, except for the armored door and the bars,” with a hard mattress, a plastic-like pillow and a shower that produced only a thin stream of water.<\/p>\n

“The worst part was that this thin stream of water stopped very quickly, like a timer. You constantly had to find the button and press it,” the former president writes.<\/p>\n

“The atmosphere was threatening. Welcome to hell! The most inhumane violence was the daily reality of this place.”<\/p>\n

Sarkozy confirms that he declined the meals served in small plastic trays along with a “mushy, soggy baguette” – their smell, he wrote, made him nauseous. Instead, he ate “dairy products, cereal bars, mineral water, apple juice and a few sweet treats.” He was allowed one hour a day in a small gym room, where he mostly used a basic treadmill.<\/p>\n

Sarkozy also uses the book to claim his “complete innocence.”<\/p>\n

“As long as I have breath in my body, I will fight with all my strength to prove it, no matter how long it takes,” he says.<\/p>\n

In October, Sarkozy became the first former French president to serve jail time post-World War II. He was convicted of criminal conspiracy over a scheme to fund his 2007 presidential race.<\/p>\n

Sarkozy was sentenced to five years in prison, but after spending 20 days in a cell, the court decided that he would be released, but under supervision.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"