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Ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy has asserted that his period of incarceration has been “gruelling” and an “ordeal” as he was present via remote connection at a judicial proceeding regarding his request to complete his jail term at home.

Court Appearance from Prison

Sarkozy, dressed in a dark blue attire, appeared on camera from jail on Monday, positioned at a desk with his legal representatives beside him. He told the court: “I want to acknowledge all the correctional officers, who are exceptionally humane, and who have made this nightmare bearable – because it is a nightmare.”

Context of the Case

Sarkozy entered La Santé prison in Paris on 21 October, after receiving a half-decade imprisonment for illegal collaboration over a scheme to obtain funds for his 2007 presidential election campaign from the government of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

He has challenged the ruling, but the court ruled that because of the “serious nature” of his guilty verdict, he had to be incarcerated while the legal challenge took its course.

Historical Importance

Sarkozy, who was France’s rightwing president between 2007 and 2012, is the initial ex-leader of an EU country to be imprisoned in prison, and the initial leader since WWII to go behind bars.

Emotional Testimony

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 could not have foreseen that at 70 years of age, I’d be in prison. It’s an challenge that has been forced upon me. I confess it’s hard, it’s very hard. It has an impact on any prisoner because it’s gruelling.”

He said he would not attempt to enter into contact with any accused individuals or witnesses in the case. He declared: “I’m French, I love my country, my family is in France. This ordeal has made them suffer a lot.”

Legal Team Comments

His legal representative Jean-Michel Darrois, sitting next to him in the remote connection facility, said: “Being in isolation has been extremely difficult for him.” He said of Sarkozy: “He’s a strong, robust and courageous man and this imprisonment has been very painful for him.”

In court, another of Sarkozy’s lawyers, Christophe Ingrain, who had visited him every day, said Sarkozy would be safer outside jail than inside. “He has faced death threats, has listened to shouts at night and the urgent intervention in a adjacent room when a prisoner injured themselves,” he said.

Current Status

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

Incarceration Details

Sarkozy has been held in solitary confinement for his own security, in an private room of about 97 square feet, with his own shower and restroom. Two bodyguards are occupying a neighbouring cell to protect him.

Reports suggested that he had been consuming solely yogurt in prison as he feared any meal might have been tampered with. He had been offered the facilities to prepare his own meals but refused this.

Support from Outside

His online presence last week posted a video of numerous correspondences, postcards and packages it claimed had been sent to him, including a collection, a sweet treat and a book. “No correspondence will go unanswered,” his account announced. “The end of the story has not yet been determined.”

Personal Belongings

Sarkozy took into prison a life story of Christ as well as The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas’s novel in which an wrongly accused individual is sentenced to jail but escapes to seek retribution.

Court Case Details

During the lengthy court case, 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 30 years.

The accused denied wrongdoing and said he had not been part of a illegal scheme to obtain campaign finances from Libya.

He was acquitted of three separate charges of dishonesty, misuse of Libyan public funds and illegal election campaign funding. After the state prosecutor also challenged these not guilty verdicts, Sarkozy will be judged again on all the charges next year, including illegal collaboration.

Prior Legal Issues

Although the claims of a secret campaign funding pact with the North African government formed the biggest corruption trial Sarkozy had faced, he had already been convicted in two separate cases and stripped of France’s top honor, the national recognition.

Sarkozy had previously become the initial ex-leader forced to wear an electronic tag after being convicted in a different matter of corruption and influence peddling. In that case, he was given a one-year jail term but was able to complete it with an ankle monitor worn around the ankle. He wore the tag for a quarter year before being allowed limited freedom.