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French prisoner escapes after dynamiting through doors

LiuKang

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset

French prisoner escapes after dynamiting through doors

One of France's best-known prisoners has escaped from jail after dynamiting his way out through the gates.

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Officers patrol the yard of Sequedin prison, after an inmate, Redoine Faid, managed to escape. Photo: AFP

By Harriet Alexander
3:13PM BST 13 Apr 2013

Redoine Faid, who published a book on life as a criminal in France's tough city suburbs, took four prison guards hostage inside Sequedin prison near Lille on Saturday morning. He then set off a series of explosions, blowing open five prison doors in turn, allegedly using explosives that his wife had smuggled into prison that morning wrapped in handkerchiefs.

Photos taken immediately after the explosion showed a door blasted open, the reinforcements hanging out from within the white metal barrier.

Faid, 40, released the guards but escaped in a car which was later found burnt out near Ronchin, south of Lille. Police were trying to trace a second vehicle to which he was thought to have switched.

"It happened very quickly, it was clearly very well organised, and we are still busy putting the facts together," a local administrative official said.

Faid's lawyer, Jean-Louis Pelletier, told French newspaper Le Parisien that he was "not at all surprised" that his client had escaped.

"That a prisoner should escape is, in principal, not particularly surprising," he said. "Especially when the prisoner is someone in his situation, and, if I may say so, someone with his social network. There was certainly the possibility that this could happen."

Mr Pelletier, who also represented Jacques Mesrine, the most infamous criminal in French history and the subject of a celebrated eponymous film, described Faid as "remarkably intelligent".

Christiane Taubira, the justice minister, visited the prison after the escape to see for herself how it occurred. "Given the severity of the events, the justice minister has decided to travel to the site," said a spokeswoman.

Etiene Dobremetz, the prison guards' union representative, said that the four men taken hostage had been deeply traumatised. He said that Faid's wife had provided the explosives – a claim denied by her lawyer, who said that she had not visited the prison that morning.

Faid was described by Frederic Fevre, the prosecutor for Lille, as a "particularly dangerous prisoner". He had a reputation for attacking armoured vehicles carrying cash, and was serving a prison sentence for a May 2010 armed robbery in which a policewoman was killed.

Born in the socially-deprived Paris satellite town of Creil – a municipality known for its gritty housing estates and high unemployment – Faid grew up as a juvenile delinquent before graduating to armed robbery. He spent eight years evading the law, staging a series of brazen robberies and taking hostages.

In 1995 he took the manager of BNP bank in Creil hostage, along with his wife and four children. Two years later he held a jeweller and his wife at gunpoint while he raided their store. In October 1998 he took a Swiss policeman hostage, before fleeing to Germany.

In 1998 he was sentenced to 30 years for the catalogue of at least eight armed robberies and bank thefts, but in 2009 he was released on parole.

A year later he published his book, Thief: The great banditry of the suburbs, in which he recounted his life story and claimed to have put his past behind him. He said his life of crime was inspired by American films such as Scarface and Heat – in which actor Robert de Niro carries out an armoured car heist – and was dubbed "the most talented thief in France".

Faid went on to become something of a media star, sought for his commentary on France's troubled banlieus and their social problems.

However, in January 2011, three days after he appeared on a Canal Plus programme to discuss the gang problems, Faid was named as the chief suspect in the botched 2010 robbery, which cost the life of 26-year-old policewoman Aurelie Fouquet.

Some 27 people were arrested in a sting operation following the murder – but Faid escaped.

He was finally arrested in June 2011 and sent to prison for eight years – the prison from which he fled on Saturday.

 

Inahime

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset

Police hunt robber Redoine Faid after he breaks out of French prison

AAP April 14, 201311:18PM

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Members of the ERIS Police service stand guard in front of the destroyed door of the Sequedin prison. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

FRENCH police are on a manhunt for a notorious armed robber who staged a dramatic prison break in northern France after briefly taking several guards hostage.

Lille prosecutor Frederic Fevre said about 100 investigators were involved in the hunt for Redoine Faid, known for brazen attacks on cash-in-transit vehicles, after he blasted his way out of a jail in the northern town of Sequedin on Saturday.

Faid, a 40-year-old who risked a heavy new sentence over the 2010 death of a policewoman, used explosives to blast through five prison doors and took hostage four prison guards, who were later released.

Investigators were trying to determine how Faid had managed to obtain explosives inside the prison and whether he had any accomplices.

"A thorough investigation has begun. Obviously he had one or more accomplices. The investigators will now determine how he was able to obtain explosives and a weapon," Mr Fevre said.

French officials have warned that Faid is considered armed and "especially dangerous".

France has issued a Europe-wide arrest warrant and called in Interpol for help, amid fears he may have already fled across the border into Belgium.

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Police officers invastigate around the destroyed door of the Sequedin prison after one of France's most dangerous gangsters, known for brazen attacks on cash-in-transit vehicles, blasted his way out of jail after taking several wardens hostage. Picture: AFP

A getaway car used in the escape was found burnt in Lille, where Faid is believed to have switched to a second vehicle.

Of the four hostages he escaped with, one was released just outside the prison, another a few hundred metres away and the last two along the highway.

Faid is known for co-authoring two books after a decade in prison for robbery, about his delinquent youth and rise as a criminal in Paris' impoverished suburbs.

He said his life of crime was inspired by US films such as Scarface and Heat.

"Movies for me were like a user's guide for armed robbery," he told the LCI news channel when his autobiography was released in 2010.

After his first robbery, Faid, of Algerian extraction, fled to Israel where he wore the Jewish skullcap and picked up Hebrew to blend in.

Despite vowing he had turned his back on crime, Faid was in 2010 suspected of being the mastermind of an armed robbery in which a young policewoman was killed in a shootout.

 

Ranmaru

Alfrescian
Loyal

France's most wanted man, Redoine Faid, captured six weeks after jailbreak
Updated 6 hours 23 minutes ago

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PHOTO: Forensics experts examine a door opened with explosives by an inmate Redoine Faid in April. (AFP: Francois Lo Presti)

French police have captured the country's most wanted man in a hotel outside Paris six weeks after he dynamited his way out of a prison in a dramatic jailbreak.

Redoine Faid, a famed 41-year-old career thief who had been serving time for past robberies and faces a heavy new sentence over the 2010 death of a policewoman, was arrested overnight at a hotel in Pontault-Combault about 20 kilometres east of central Paris.

Police said he was arrested with an accomplice and that weapons were seized at the scene.

Interior minister Manuel Valls hailed police for the "thorough and effective" investigation that led to Faid's capture.

French officials had warned that Faid, who grew up in tough immigrant suburbs outside Paris, was considered armed and "especially dangerous".

Faid had been in prison since mid-2011 for breaking the terms of his parole over past convictions for bank robberies and brazen heists of cash-in-transit vehicles.

He is suspected of masterminding a May 2010 armed robbery that turned into a gunfight in which a young policewoman was killed.

Faid had been released from a previous stint of a decade behind bars after convincing parole officials that he regretted his criminal past and was determined to start afresh.

He has co-authored two books about his delinquent youth and rise as a criminal in Paris's impoverished suburbs, saying his life of crime was inspired by American films such as Scarface and Heat.

AFP

 
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