The information was revealed this Wednesday, October 9 by our colleagues from Var-Matin. Joseph Thomas, called Tommy, Reccoconsidered the oldest prisoner in Franceis no longer incarcerated at the Borgo penitentiary center. Last spring it was transferred to the Salon de Provence detention center (Bouches-du-Rhône) where he is now serving his sentence.
“This is a measure that was taken last April by the prison administration for health reasons mainly linked to his old age, noted Me Alain Lhotel’un des avocats de Tommy Recco. My client first stayed at the UHSA (specially equipped hospital unit) in Marseille, where he stayed for around two weeks. He was then transferred to Salon de Provence prison, probably because this penitentiary establishment is close to the UHSA. Tommy Recco initially reacted to this decision with incomprehension before understanding that it was linked to his state of health and had no disciplinary nature.”
He had filed around twenty requests for sentence modification
Tommy Recco, now 90 years old, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1983 by the Var Assize Court for two triple murders, one committed in 1979 in Béziers and the other in 1980 in Carqueiranne. Crimes that he has always denied.
The second triple homicide was committed while he was on parole following a previous life sentence (subsequently commuted to twenty years of imprisonment) for a murder committed in 1962 in Propriano.
Originally from Propriano, Tommy Recco is considered the oldest inmate in France. Incarcerated since 1980, he has been refused, according to his lawyers, around twenty requests for sentence modification.
He had been serving his sentence at the Borgo penitentiary center since March 2012.
At the end of 2023, his counsel filed an appeal before the European Court of Human Rights to denounce the length of his detention.
