France's Sarkozy protected by two bodyguards in jail: Minister

PARIS

France's interior minister on Wednesday confirmed former president Nicolas Sarkozy would be protected by two security officers while serving jail time in a criminal conspiracy case involving Libya.

The former head of state would usually benefit from "a protection arrangement given his status and the threats against him", an arrangement that "has indeed been maintained in detention", Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told local media, confirming what sources had earlier told AFP.

Two security officers are stationed in a neighbouring cell in La Sante prison in Paris, where Sarkozy was incarcerated on Tuesday.

The right-wing leader from 2007 to 2012 was found guilty last month of seeking to acquire funding for the campaign that saw him elected from Moamer Kadhafi's Libya.

He was handed a five-year prison term for criminal conspiracy.

Sarkozy was expected to be held in a nine square metre (95 square foot) cell in the prison's solitary confinement wing to avoid contact with other prisoners, prison staff told AFP.

In solitary confinement, prisoners are allowed out of their cells for one walk a day, alone, in a small yard. Sarkozy will also be allowed visits three times a week.

Sarkozy is the first former head of a European Union state to be jailed.

He is the first French leader to be incarcerated since Philippe Petain, the Nazi collaborationist head of state who was jailed after World War II.

He has faced a flurry of legal woes since losing his re-election bid in 2012, already being convicted in two other cases.