An inmate from the Bouches-du-Rhône central prison detained four hospital staff and a supervisor this Friday, January 3, at the end of the morning. Police announced the end of the hostage situation shortly before 4 p.m.
End of the nightmare for the five people detained since the end of the morning. The police announced shortly before 4 p.m. the end of the hostage-taking which was underway this Friday, January 3 in Arles prison. “The hostage taker from the Arles central house was arrested immediately. No injuries, for his part wrote the Minister of Justice, Gérald Darmanin, on X. Thank you to the prison administration teams and the Raid police officers for their intervention.”
One of the five hostages, a psychiatrist, had already been released an hour earlier “in the context of negotiations with the hostage taker”, the Ministry of Justice announced late in the afternoon. Still according to the ministry, “the Raid then intervened around 3:30 p.m., allowing the four other personnel to be freed [trois infirmiers et un surveillant, ndlr] and put an end to the hostage taking. Psychological support has been put in place. et “an open investigation”.
At the end of the morning, Samuel Gauthier, general secretary of the CGT Pénitentiaire, contacted by Liberation claimed to have been informed by his administration of the incident in the Bouches-du-Rhône central house, thus confirming information from Provence. “The inmate [muni d’un pic artisanal] retains a supervisor at the health unit level, as well as hospital staff. He allegedly asked to speak to the Eris bargaining units [les équipes régionales d’intervention et de sécurité, ndlr]», then related Samuel Gauthier. A Liberation, a prison source specified that five staff were taken hostage, four health staff and a prison officer.
“Not a terrorist profile”
The detainee, who began the hostage-taking around 11:15 a.m. in the health unit of the Arles central house, is known for his psychological disorders but does not present “not a terrorist profile”, according to a prison source at AFP. Aged 37, he was incarcerated for rape at gunpoint and could be released in 2031. During the hostage taking, he said he wanted “change prison center”, according to the source close to the file.
The local newspaper Provence remember that with “159 places for 137 inmates”, the Arles central prison is far from being overcrowded. It is an establishment for punishment, that is to say reserved for convicted persons considered to be the most dangerous, whose sentences are very long. It is in this establishment that Yvan Colonna, the assassin of prefect Erignac, was killed by a fellow inmate in 2022. This prison, closed for six years, between 2003 and 2009, after being flooded during a flood of the Rhône, had also welcomed a detainee like Jean-Marc Rouillan, member of the far-left armed group Action Directe, of which he was one of the co-founders.
Update at 4:03 p.m., end of the hostage situation; at 5 p.m. with details from the Ministry of Justice.
