A psychiatric assessment interrupted the custody of the inmate who took five people hostage on Friday January 3 at Arles prison (Bouches-du-Rhône).
Hospitalization in a psychiatric unit required. The custody of the inmate who took five people hostage on Friday January 3 at Arles prison (Bouches-du-Rhône) was interrupted this Saturday.
The expert psychiatrist concluded “that there was a decompensation of personality disorders having the effect of making him dangerous for himself or others” and recommended “constrained hospitalization in a specialized environment”, indicated the public prosecutor of Tarascon, Laurent Gumbau, in a press release sent to AFP.
This 37-year-old Guyanese national took four medical staff and a prison guard hostage for five hours on Friday, in the care unit of the Arles central prison where he sequestered them under threat of a homemade weapon , before surrendering without causing any injuries.
sentence of 18 years of criminal imprisonment lifted
The man seemed to have the “motive” to change establishment, but “there was no specific, written request, as inmates can do with the prison administration,” the Tarascon prosecutor emphasized on Friday. .
The custody of this inmate, who was serving an 18-year prison sentence at Arles central prison for rape at gunpoint, was lifted at 6:30 p.m., the magistrate said, “and an admission complete without consent implemented (…) at the specialized hospital center of Montfavet” (Vaucluse).
“He could ultimately be taken care of at the beginning of next week within the specially designed hospital unit (UHSA) in Marseille,” he added. As soon as his health condition “is sufficiently stabilized, he will be interviewed again as part of a resumption of the police custody measure,” said Mr. Gumbau.
Several sources highlighted on Friday the psychiatric disorders of the detainee, described as “unstable”, without any pathology being formally established.
The Bouches-du-Rhône police prefect, Pierre-Edouard Colliex, described this man, known “for acts of violence, particularly in detention”, as “very dangerous”, welcoming an outcome “without the use of force” , at the end of a “fairly long and fairly complicated negotiation”.
