Did Rédoine Faïd try to escape again? Detained at the Vendin-le-Vieil penitentiary center (Pas de Calais), the 52-year-old repeat robber was placed in police custody all day Tuesday. The measure was lifted in the evening, but the detainee could be referred later. Prisoner number 1016, who has been in solitary confinement since 2011, was questioned at his place of detention by the banditry suppression brigade (BRB) of Versailles (Yvelines) on commission from a judge in the context of an investigation by JUNALCO (National Jurisdiction for the Fight against Organized Crime).
According to our information, the inmate would be suspected of two escape plans in 2021 and 2023 while he was in Vendin-le-Vieil then at the Fleury-Mérogis penitentiary center (Essonne) awaiting his trial for his spectacular helicopter escape, in 2018, from Réau prison.
In 2021 in Vendin-le-Vieil, the king of beauty would have made friends with a heavyweight in drug trafficking. “A detainee in the top five of the biggest French traffickers,” according to a source close to the case. The two men would have exchanged and developed the beginning of an escape plan. But the trafficker ultimately did not follow up.
On September 9, the Paris prosecutor's office opened a judicial investigation for criminal conspiracy with a view to preparing crimes or offenses. The trafficker stamped by the King of Beauty is then questioned by the PJ of Versailles and confirms having been requested by Faïd without having followed up. “He came to his senses and realized that Rédoine Faïd was a finished man and that there was no chance that the business would prosper positively” reports a source close to the matter to Le Parisien. Rédoine Faïd is never questioned.
A perfect little escape booklet
In 2023, the king of beauty is transferred to Fleury-Mérogis for his trial for his spectacular escape by helicopter from Réau prison. There, he would have taken advantage of the presence of a fellow inmate who regularly passed his window during the walk to transmit to him snippets of an escape scenario each time he passed. Sometimes he details on a sheet the number of meters between the exterior wall of the establishment and his cell, sometimes he indicates the possible landing point of a helicopter or the location of the explosives. In the end, this is the perfect little escape book, according to a well-informed source.
The repeat robber allegedly asked the soon-to-be-released fellow prisoner to give these technical sheets to his family. The emissary would have committed to participating in the project, taking advantage of the notoriety and protection of Rédoine Faïd in prison. But finally, two weeks before his release, the inmate handed over all the documents to the prison administration in exchange for a promise not to be bothered. A few days later, the initial judicial information was extended over a period until May 2023 by the Paris prosecutor's office.
Those around the prisoner speak of “a vague intellectual construction to keep the prisoner in isolation at all costs while he leads a fight against the prison administration”. One thing is certain: the prosecution has opened an investigation for criminal conspiracy with a view to committing a crime or an offense and not for attempted escape. Which suggests that the elements available to justice are tenuous. Contacted, Maître Salomé Cohen does not want to comment on the merits, but is surprised by the chronology of the facts.
“After public opinion was finally moved by the incredible conditions of detention of Rédoine Faid, it is clever to organize this police custody for a new/another escape attempt. The Prosecutor's Office communicated on Instagram the alleged facts as well as the period of prevention and the name of the court. Is this a communication strategy to remove the few points of empathy that my client had gained following the sentencing chamber's ruling confirming his continued confinement and hygiaphone visiting rooms? »
According to our information, Rédoine Faïd was interviewed in a very secure location in Vendin-le-Vieil prison by investigators from the BRB in Versailles who made the trip.
PODCAST. Robberies, prison, escapes… the infernal spiral of Rédoine Faïd
Rédoine Faïd is known for having managed to escape from prison twice, in 2013 with an explosive and then in 2018 by helicopter. In 2023, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison for the July 2018 escape from Réau prison. He was already serving sentences for robberies, one of which cost the life of a municipal police officer without Rédoine Faïd being found guilty.
His request to lift his isolation regime rejected in December
Since then, the inmate has continued to denounce his conditions of incarceration. On December 10, 2024, Rédoine Faïd began a hunger strike to contest the refusal to lift his solitary confinement in prison, which he considered unjust. His hunger strike ended five days later. For several years, the inmate had been asking for “normal” visiting rooms without a hygiaphone, as well as the family living unit.
On December 2, his request for lifting of the regime was rejected by the sentence enforcement chamber of the Douai Court of Appeal. A ruling which contradicted the decision of a sentence enforcement judge to lift his isolation. “No detainee has suffered such treatment,” the prisoner told us in November 2023 when we visited him at the Fleury-Mérogis remand center.
