Former President Nicolas Sarkozy releases 'Journal d’un prisonnier', depicting ten years of persecution leading to an unjust conviction based on a false document. He likens his brief detention to that of Captain Dreyfus, a victim of historical judicial error. The book serves as a judicial and political weapon to shape his image as an innocent.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the first former French president to be convicted and imprisoned, publishes 'Journal d’un prisonnier' with Fayard (216 pages, 20.90 euros). In this hot-off-the-press account, he hammers the theme of injustice over 80 times, calling his conviction 'unjust' and 'unthinkable,' based on a 'false document.' His 21-day detention at La Santé prison in Paris is portrayed as 'absurd,' 'as unjustified as it was useless.'
Sarkozy explicitly compares himself to Captain Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935), wrongly convicted of high treason and exiled for over four years to Devil's Island in French Guiana. He acknowledges, however, enduring far less. This testimony is more than personal: it acts as a weapon in his ongoing legal battle and a political tool to etch into history the image of a persecuted innocent rather than a wrongdoer.
The book highlights ten years of 'persecution' before the verdict, noting the exceptional prison treatment he received. Beyond the intimate narrative, it aims to shape public and judicial perceptions of his case.
