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Saturday, April 13, 2013
Redoine Faid escapes from prison - captured five guards before using explosions to blow through 5 doors ! Very organized escape , clearly he had massive help smuggling explosions into a prison - inside help as well ?
One of France's most notorious criminals has staged a dramatic prison break, using explosives to blow off prison doors.
Redoine Faid, who wrote a book in 2009 chronicling growing up on a tough suburban estate and becoming a criminal, broke out of the Sequedin prison near Lille on Saturday 13 April.
The convicted armed robber took five prison guards hostage before using dynamite to blow up five doors.
He then made off in a getaway car, which he torched just south of Lille. He continued his escape in another car, which police are still trying to trace.
Some hostages were released outside the jail, while the rest were dropped off on the highway.
Police believe that Faid's wife may have given him the explosives when she visited him on Saturday morning.
They warned the public that Faid was probably armed and carrying explosives.
State prosecutor Frederic Fevre told AFP that Faid was a "particularly dangerous prisoner".
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."
He described Faid as "remarkably intelligent".
Christiane Taubira, France's justice minister, today visited the prison to investigate how the escape could have happened.
Despite declaring that he had renounced a life of crime, the authorities believe Faid masterminded an armed robbery in which a police woman was killed in 2010.
He was jailed in 2011 for breaking the parole conditions for a previous conviction.
Officials said that they were still trying to piece together what happened, but the escape was clearly well organised.
Faid first gained notoriety with a series of audacious armed robberies.
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 Parisienthat 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.
Etienne 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.
A notorious robber has escaped from jail after blasting through five doors with explosives and taking several wardens hostage.
French security forces beside one of the doors that was blown up
Police and helicopters were hunting the man, identified as Redoine Faid, one of the country's most dangerous gangsters who is known for robbing vehicles carrying cash in transit.
State prosecutor Frederic Fevre said Faid was a "particularly dangerous prisoner" who was armed and still in possession of explosives.
He said Faid, 40, had four hostages with him during the jail break in the northern town of Sequedin.
One was released just outside the prison and another a few hundred metres away, before the final two were left along a road.
The wardens were said to be extremely shocked, but safe.
Faid later set his getaway car on fire, abandoning it south of the city of Lille, and then got into a second vehicle which police were attempting to track.
The breakout happened in the town of Sequedin
Wardens' unions described the prison break as "an act of war" and argued the Sedequin jail was inadequate for such dangerous convicts.
Union official Etiene Dobremetz said Faid had received a visit from his wife earlier in the day and there were suggestions she had given him the explosives hidden in small tissues.
But the wife's lawyer vehemently denied any suspicion of her involvement in the escape.
"It happened very quickly, it was clearly very well organised, we are still busy putting the facts together," a local administrative official said.
Rose Lafont was visiting her son in prison at the time and described the chaos caused by Faid's escape.
The prisoner set his getaway car on fire
"I thought my last hour had come," she said.
"Suddenly, everything started blowing up. The walls started shaking, as did the windows and the doors. I was really scared."
Faid is also known for co-authoring a book in 2009 following his release on parole after a decade in prison for robbery.
The novel was about his delinquent youth and rise as a criminal in Paris' impoverished crime-ridden suburbs.
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.
Despite vowing he had turned his back on crime, Faid was in 2010 suspected of being the mastermind behind an armed robbery in which a young policewoman was killed in a shoot-out.
He ended up back in prison in 2011 for failing to comply with his parole conditions and was due to serve the remaining eight years of his original sentence.
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