PARIS (AFP) — 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 Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Two security officers are stationed in a neighboring 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.

Sarkozy was expected to be held in a nine square meter cell in the prison’s solitary confinement wing to avoid contact with other prisoners, prison staff told AFP.

He is allowed for one walk a day, alone, in a small yard.