The criminal, convicted in 1999 for the murder of a businessman, was granted leave last summer to obtain his driving test. Prison guards denounced it as a “scandal”.
News that risks enraging prison unions. The repeat criminal Christophe Khider, described by the authorities as “dangerous” and who had been incarcerated since 1995 for multiple robberies, a murder and several escapes, was released this Wednesday evening, December 11, we learned Le Figaro from a source close to the file, confirming information from Paris Match.
He thus left the Vendin-le-Vieil prison (Pas-de-Calais), where he was serving his sentence. He will now have to wear an electronic bracelet, which he will have to keep for 18 months before being granted parole.
Hostage taking and shootout with police
Aged 53, Christophe Khider should remain in prison until 2044. He was sentenced in 1999 to thirty years in prison, for having shot dead a businessman who had refused to give him his vehicle, after the hold-up meteoric rise of a bank in the 20e district of Paris.
Two years later, in 2001, Khider attempted to escape from Fresnes prison by helicopter. A commando of three people, including the younger brother of the robber, had hijacked a plane to fly over the penitentiary establishment.
Arriving above the courtyard, and while Christophe Khider is out walking, the three hooded men throw a ladder from the helicopter… before realizing that it is far too short to reach the criminal. At the same time, the authorities opened fire on the commando, who preferred to throw a bag containing an assault rifle, a pistol and two vests from the helicopter, before fleeing. The robber then seizes the weapons and takes hostage, with another inmate, three guards, who are released at dawn after intense negotiations.
In 2008, the criminal also tried, in vain, to escape from Lannemezan prison, in the Hautes-Pyrénées, through the building’s ducts. But it was in 2009 that Khider managed to escape from the Moulins-Yzeure penitentiary center, in Allier, by blowing up two armored doors located in the visiting room. A 30-hour chase ensued, during which the criminal was injured in a shootout with the police.
Also read
The “gruesome” furloughs for dangerous repeat robber Christophe Khider, in prison until 2044
“Arm of honor”
Last August, Le Figaro had reported that Christophe Khider had been able to benefit from several exit authorizations to obtain his driving license, in order to gradually prepare for his reintegration into society.
A decision judged “scandalous” et “ubuesque” for the Unsa prison union, for whom this constituted a “arm of honor” towards prison guards. “We think we are dreaming: this inmate, classified as escort 4 (for those who benefit from external support and who have already managed to escape during an armed attack, Editor’s note)requires the reinforcement of the police for the slightest exit from the establishment!”pointed out the union in a press release.
Finally last November, the Douai Chamber for the Enforcement of Sentences gave the green light to an adjustment of the sentence, and to release the inmate with an electronic bracelet.
