Inside the prison with Nicolas Sarkozy – Riots and VIP benefits

The verdict followed a three-month trial that ended in April and involved 11 co-defendants, including three of Sarkozy’s former ministers.

Judge Nathalie Gavarino said the former leader “allowed his close associates to act with the aim of obtaining financial support from the Libyan regime.”

Sarkozy maintains his innocence and has promised to appeal.

Sources close to the French prison service have confirmed that Sarkozy will now be transferred to La Santé, in the city’s 14th arrondissement.

He will serve his sentence on the top floor of the isolation wing, separated from other inmates and under constant supervision.

“He will be given a cell equipped with a bed, desk, shower, toilet and stove,” said a senior justice official. “He can request a small refrigerator and a television. For security reasons, he will not mingle with the general population.”

La Santé, built in 1867, has one of the darkest histories of French prison life. Once home to serial killers, political dissidents and gangsters, it has long been ruled by violence and fear.

Between the end of the 19th century and 1972, dozens of prisoners were executed by guillotine there – including Roger Bontems and Claude Buffet, the last men to suffer that fate in France after a failed escape attempt left a nurse and a guard dead.

The prison’s fame was raised by a series of riots and escapes, including the spectacular 1978 escape of gangster Jacques Mesrine, who scaled the outer wall and disappeared into the streets of Paris, and another in 1986 when inmate Michel Vaujour escaped by his wife’s helicopter.

The facility’s grim conditions were exposed in 2000 by the former chief medical officer, who described “a city of shadows” plagued by overcrowding, vermin and disease. His book details how suicidal prisoners were bound in chains and how trench foot and infections spread in filthy cells. The scandal led to partial closures and renovations, but critics say reforms have been slow.

“The physical structure has been modernized, but the ghosts remain,” said a former guard.

Despite its violent past, La Santé also has a ‘special area’ for notable prisoners: a quieter area designed to ensure safety and privacy. It has housed figures such as Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega, terrorist Carlos the Jackal and a range of high-profile politicians.