Inside La Santé prison where Nicolas Sarkozy faces years in isolation
French ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy began his five-year prison sentence on Tuesday, locked up in a nine-square-metre cell at Paris' infamous La Santé prison
French ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy has begun his five-year prison sentence after being convicted of taking millions of euros from late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to fund his 2007 election campaign.
The 70-year-old, who led France from 2007 to 2012, was locked up on Tuesday inside a nine-square-metre cell at La Santé prison, in Paris. The 19th-century prison has a dark history, having held some of the country's most infamous criminals and even witnessed guillotine executions right up until 1972. More recently, model agent Jean-Luc Brunel - a close associate of Jeffrey Epstein - was housed there awaiting sex-trafficking charges before being found dead in his cell in 2022.
La Santé is also notoriously overcrowded, holding 1,243 inmates despite being built for just 657, according to August data from the Justice Ministry. France has one of the worst prison overcrowding rates in Europe, ranking below only Slovenia and Cyprus, the Council of Europe says.
Sarkozy is reportedly kept in a single-occupancy cell in the isolation wing for his own safety. Prisoners in the unit spend most of their time alone and get just one hour outdoors a day, separated from others. Their cells have window coverings to limit communication between inmates, according to a 2020 report by the Supervisor-General of Places of Deprivation of Liberty.
Inside, Sarkozy has a toilet, shower, desk, small electric hob and a TV - for which he’ll pay a £12 monthly fee - plus the right to a small fridge, costing £6.50 a month.
"Conditions of detention in an isolation wing are pretty hard," former La Santé deputy head Flavie Rault told BFMTV. "You are alone, all the time. The only contact you have is with prison staff. You never come across another detainee for security reasons and there's a type of social isolation which makes life difficult".
Prison officials insist that safety and sanitary conditions have improved since La Santé’s five-year renovation, completed in 2019. But prison doctor Véronique Vasseur painted a bleaker picture in 2020, describing cockroach and rat infestations, as well as violence and psychological distress among inmates.
Two police officers will be permanently stationed in nearby cells next to protect the former president. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told Europe 1 radio: “The former president of the republic is entitled to protection because of his status. There is obviously a threat against him, and this protection is being maintained while he is in detention."
It comes after a video surfaced online showing an inmate threatening Sarkozy. The prisoner is heard shouting: "Sarko, he’s right there, in an isolated area. He’s all alone in his cell. He just arrived, Tuesday, October 20, 2025 – he’s going to have a bad time. Right next to it, there’s solitary confinement below – it’s solitary confinement, he’s just above. And we know everything – we’re going to avenge Gaddafi. We know everything, Sarko, Ziad Takieddine, we know everything. Give back the billions of dollars."
Ziad Takieddine, a Lebanese arms dealer and key witness in the case, died in mysterious circumstances earlier this year while on the run. He was long rumoured to be the middleman between Gaddafi and Sarkozy.
Sarkozy continues to protest his innocence, posting on X while being driven to the jail: "I have no doubt. Truth will prevail. But how crushing the price will have been."
His cell is believed to be on the top floor, in the so-called QB4 or "VIP" wing, where high-profile and at-risk inmates are housed. Prison guard union representative Wilfried Fonck told Reuters that isolation aside, conditions in the wing are no better than elsewhere in the jail.
Despite the police protection, Sarkozy’s lawyer Jean-Michel Darrois insisted the ex-president is not receiving special treatment.
“He is in a nine-metre-squared (nearly 97-square-foot) cell, there is noise all the time. All the prisoners make noise, they shout, they bang on the walls." Darrois told BFMTV on Tuesday night. "In principle, given the positions he has held, he should have a different status. He didn’t ask for it, so he doesn’t have it."
Sarkozy’s wife, Carla Bruni, spoke to him by phone after his first night in prison, describing it as "terrifying", his lawyers said. His family members will be allowed three visits per week.
Sarkozy told Le Figaro newspaper that he would bring the maximum three books allowed - The Count of Monte Cristo and a biography of Jesus Christ among them. He also plans to write a book about his time in jail, his lawyers said.
In September, Sarkozy was found guilty of criminal conspiracy. Prosecutors said that between 2005 and 2007, he arranged the transfer of up to €50 million (£43 million) from Libya to finance his campaign - charges which he has repeatedly denied. His legal team has filed an appeal, and judges have two months to decide whether his conviction will stand.