“Now, to obtain his transfer, we are taking the staff hostage!” : supervisor at the Arles power plant, he testifies

“There you go. Now, to obtain his transfer we are taking the staff hostage!”denounces Thomas Forner. This Friday, January 3 at 3:45 p.m., the Ufap penitentiary delegate at Arles prison was still in the premises, when he witnessed the happy outcome of the hostage taking in progress since mid-morning within from the infirmary of this Bouches-du-Rhône penitentiary establishment.

Metal rod

“Aged 37, the hostage-taking inmate who recently arrived at the establishment demanded his transfer. Failing to obtain it, he attacked our four comrades in the medical service as well as a supervisor. “he was therefore held for long hours in the infirmary under threat of a homemade weapon made by him using a metal rod”he denounced, reached by telephone.

“Releasable in 2031, this accused had just arrived at the establishment, as part of a transfer for security reasons. In 2018, he had already attacked members of the prison staff of another establishment in using a bladed weapon”recounts Thomas Forner who had already witnessed a little before 3 p.m. the release, by the madman, of the psychiatrist following the negotiation started a few hours earlier by the RAID.

A little before 4 p.m., the five people detained were all free again. None of them had been injured. Despite the events, and in particular the interventions of the RAID and the ERIS on the penitentiary establishment, detention remained calm within the Arles central prison. A prison currently housing 137 inmates, all sentenced to long sentences.