FORMER French president Nicolas Sarkozy will be held in solitary confinement at a Parisian prison renowned for beheadings, escapes and riots.
Sarkozy was jailed for five years after being found guilty of a “criminal conspiracy” plot to launder millions of dollars of cash from ruthless Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi.
The former politician is set to be seconded to La Santé Prison where he will remain in solitary confinement for the duration of his sentence.
La Santé has stood since 1867 and boasts a grim past, the prison was the site of a number of guillotine beheadings, three high profile escapes and dozens of violent riots.
It also plays host to a wing termed the “special area” where convicted high profile figures like Sarkozy are held.
Throughout his time in the notorious prison Sarkozy will be held separately from other inmates and will always be accompanied by a guard for his own safety.
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His cell will feature a bed, desk, shower, toilet and hot plate and he can also apply to have a fridge and TV installed in the space which he will only be allowed to leave for exercise.
Sarkozy will join a long list of dozens of infamous criminals held in the looming jail, which sits next to a school in a Parisian suburb.
He will join the ranks of former inmates including the likes of Manuel Noriega, Carlos the Jackal and Parisian gangster Jaques Mesrine, who all did stints behind the prisons bars.
Famously, in 1978 Jaques Mesrine made a daring escape from La Santé, scaling the looming walls and disappearing into the streets of Paris.
The jail has gained so much notoriety over the years that it was dubbed a “a site of memory” by the public relations arm of the French prison service.
But despite the somewhat revered status achieved by La Santé the prison’s history has been riddled with blights.
In 2000 a book was published, penned by the prison’s former chief medical officer, exposing the squalid life led by prisoners caged in La Santé.
The tell all described a vile infestation of cockroaches and rats and explained how prisoners were piled on top of one another in the grim overcrowded jailhouse.
According to the novel, suicidal prisoners were bound in chains and inmates suffered the sort of wounds usually only seen in wartime.
Trench foot, and other skin infections were rife and the prison’s community of caged criminals developed a sort of twisted set of rules and morality.
La Santé, it was claimed, was governed by violence and illogic with the authorities abandoning the place to rot.
Control has historically been exercised through violence at the prison with its sordid history seeing dozens of prisoners executed by guillotine, some as recently as 1972.
Roger Bontems and Claude Buffet met their ends in the courtyard of La Santé and became the last two men to be executed by guillotine at the notorious prison.
The pair publicly killed for their attempt to break out of La Santé, an attempt that saw a nurse and a guard taken as hostages and brutally killed.
Another, less violent, breakout attempt was launched in 1986 when inmate Michel Vaujour fled the prisons walls.
His daring escape attempt saw his wife fly a helicopter into the prison to pick him up.
The dramatic escape made headlines and marked the last time a prisoner would find their way out from inside La Santé.
Three of the prison’s worst blocks were closed down in the wake of the scandalous revelations with the French authorities desperately trying to turn things around.
The prison was opened for public as part of a series of heritage days every autumn which sees the government open up places of historical importance that are normally hidden from the public gaze.
The government has claimed that its models for reform in its prisons are second to none.
Sarkozy will serve his five-year sentence on the top floor of the prisons isolation wing.
Aside from his cell the ex president will only be allowed to make two visits a day to one of the prison’s gyms or exercise yards.
He will be taken to La Santé on Tuesday with his son, Louis, calling for a rally to be held the same day in protest at his father’s sentence.
Louis wrote on Instagram: “This rally is not political. This is neither a protest nor a denunciation.
” It’s simply a gesture of support, a silent testimony worthy of a grateful country towards a man who devoted his life to it.”
Judges sitting at the Paris Correctional Court ruled that the cash from the executed Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi helped Sarkozy, now 70, with his electioneering.
It followed a three-month trial that ended in April, and which also involved 11 other defendants, including three of Sarkozy’s former ministers.
Sarkozy was sentenced to five years in prison – the maximum sentence possible for “criminal conspiracy”.
He will also have to pay a fine of €100,000, while the date for the start of his jail term is being set.
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Judge Nathalie Gavarino ruled that Sarkozy was guilty of having “allowed his close associates to act with a view to obtaining financial support from the Libyan regime.”
It is the first time that a former French head of state has been found guilty of trying to use foreign money in such a manner.
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