Sarkozy, first day in prison: “He did sports and started writing a book”. How he was received by the inmates
Nicolas Sarkozy surrendered on October 21 at La Santé prison: Thibault Camus / AP / Profimedia
“It's not Club Méditerranée,” lawyer Jean-Michel Darrois said this evening as he left Santé prison after visiting his client, Nicolas Sarkozy. “Today he did sports, he started writing his book. He is in a nine square meter cell, there is a lot of noise all the time.” The lawyer added that Sarkozy was able to see his wife, Carla Bruni, for the first time this afternoon in one of the three one-hour meetings a week he is entitled to. “A first day in prison is terrible, but he overcame it,” concluded the lawyer.
A day that began at 9:37 in the morning when Nicolas Sarkozy's dark colored Renault Espace drove into the Montparnasse prison, the only one still existing within the walls of Paris.
Overcrowded, the prison holds 1,237 inmates, when its maximum capacity is 657. The former president is not held in the “vulnerable” section, which previously housed celebrities such as Bernard Tapie, but in solitary confinement, not for a harsher punishment but to ensure he does not come into contact with other inmates who could threaten his safety.
On arrival, he was greeted by shouts – not exactly friendly – from the other inmates: “Oh, welcome, Sarkozy!” and “Sarkozy is here!”. He was presented with prison regulations and reminded why he was in prison: for complicity in the Libyan financing of his 2007 election campaign.
The guards then fingerprinted and photographed him, and he was assigned an inmate number along with an internal ID card. Sarkozy was forced to leave his other documents and personal belongings in a small safe, but was allowed to keep his wedding ring and watch. He was then given, like every other inmate, an “entry kit” with soap, sheets, pots and pans, paper and a pen.
He was escorted to his cell, which has a bathroom with a shower, a cooking nook, a bed, a small desk, a small TV and – mobile phones are banned – a 10-number landline pre-authorised by the prison administration that can listen in on conversations.
On the advice of his lawyers, the former president brought some sweaters to protect himself from the cold and earplugs. The most difficult part is at night, because the guards, especially in the initial phase of detention, turn on the light every hour to check if the prisoner is suicidal, and because it is common practice for the other prisoners to chant the newcomer's name throughout the first night. And as the “law and order” interior minister, Sarkozy was never soft on criminals.
