Everything ended well, but the affair could have gone very badly. A hostage taking took place for several hours from Friday morning January 3 until mid-afternoon at Arles prison, located not far from the city center. From the end of the morning, La Provence is aware of what is happening within the confines of the remand center. An inmate with a long record, sentenced to 18 years in prison for sexual offenses, holds five people at the threat of a homemade bladed weapon.
The victims are medical staff and a prison guard. With 159 places and 137 inmates serving long sentences there, the Arles prison, built in the 1990s, does not suffer from prison overcrowding. The occupancy rate there is in fact 85%.
But the FO Justice union nevertheless already sounded the alarm last October to denounce the risks taken by agents for their safety, the care of detainees or even the effectiveness of the organization within the walls.
At the beginning of the afternoon, more information was communicated about the hostage taker. The detainee is 37 years old, sentenced to 18 years in prison and reported radicalized in 2013. “The current hostage-taking would not, however, be based on juhadist motives, but on the discontent of the thirty-year-old following the refusal of his transfer“, our journalist learns. Below, a Raid agent is on site. The intervention is continuing.
Around 3 p.m., a psychiatrist was finally released by the detainee. Four people are still detained.
At 4 p.m., the hostage taker surrendered and no injuries were reported. The raid leaves the remand center.
The details of the intervention are not yet known, but the police prefect Pierre-Édouard Colliex as well as the public prosecutor and the mayor of Arles are holding a press briefing on site.
More information to come…
