How much is, according to drug traffickers, a human life? In a video published on social networks at the beginning of last December, that of an assistant owner of the Marseille prison of Baumettes was put at prices for “120,000 euros”. According to several union sources, the name of this supervisor and the exact address of his home were disseminated there, for the attention of any performer likely to honor this “contract”. “We go up a notch in violence. There have always been threats, but there, there are no more limits,” sighs Catherine Forzi, supervisor at Baumettes for more than twenty years and local secretary for the union Fo justice.
In the closed -door of the prison, the facts seem to have been chained at an impressive speed. Everything goes back to the end of November, when an inmate, suspected of belonging to the “high of the specter” of the DZ Mafia – one of the most important clans of Marseille drug traffickers – disputes its conditions of detention Isolation district, and obtains to meet with the establishment chief, Karine Lagier. “It was especially about excavations and his life in cell. There was a stormy exchange between the two, he made him derogatory and moved remarks,” said Jean-Charles Allen, supervisor at the penitentiary center and secretary UFAP-UNSA justice. Following this exchange, the installation of complaints. On Friday, November 29, the detainee appeared in the disciplinary committee, chaired by the deputy chief of detention, who sentenced him to several days in disciplinary district.
“He did not agree with this sanction at all, the tone rose, and it was in the weekend that the famous video was released on social networks,” summarizes Jean-Charles Allen, who specifies that ‘At this point, nothing allows to know if this video has been put online “by the prisoner himself, by his network inside or outside the prison, or even by other prisoners who have been wind of the case “. “But what is certain is that there are Baumettes phones, and that it is very easy to have access to social networks,” says the unionist, disappointed. In such a context, these threats are taken very seriously by the administration: from December 1, Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone opened an investigation following “intimidation maneuvers and threats against staff” Baumettes.
“Exceptionally serious and serious situation”
In parallel, additional police patrols are regularly sent to observation near the prison and the Les Baumes residence, which adjoins the detention center and hosts many prison agents. “It should be remembered that in the previous September month, a fire departure had taken place in front of the home of another supervisor, close to the famous detention chief. The situation was enough to worry,” says Catherine Forzi. On the night of Sunday December 1 to Monday December 2, one of these patrols of the southern anti -crime brigade meets a vehicle around the prison, “driven by two hooded individuals, dressed in black”, reports a police source to the ‘Express. A “chase” begins then, before the car is in a roundabout. The two men are arrested – a knife will be found in the vehicle, and a “loaded pistol” in a bag, thrown a few moments earlier by the fugitives. The two suspects, aged 17 and 21 “, are not Marseille. According to the same source, one was from “Paris region, and the other from Avignon”.
Without a link can still be established between these two events, Nicolas Bessone confirms, in a statement on December 6, that these two suspects were placed in police custody then indicted, in particular for “attempted homicide With premeditation or ambush “,” participation in a group with a view to preparing an organized gang assassination “and” threats, violence, or any other act of intimidation “on persons possession of the public authority. In the process, Karine Lagier and her assistant owner are temporarily far from their respective functions, and placed under police protection. Since then, none of them has resumed their post in the Baumettes prison. Contacted, the prison administration evokes with L’Express an “exceptionally serious and serious” situation, and ensures that “appropriate protection measures have been immediately organized” to guarantee the security of these agents.
“If you bother me, I’ll do you the same”
While the investigation is still underway, neither Karine Lagier, nor the Marseille prosecutor’s office responded to L’Express solicitations on the follow -up of the case. But according to a penitentiary source, the prisoner implicated, for his part, was transferred to another establishment, and the two people arrested near the prison are currently imprisoned “outside the region”. In the meantime, the Baumettes staff are trying to make their missions as well as possible, even if the consequences were quick to be felt at the detainees. “The message sent is not the right one, because today some people throw us: ‘If you bother me, I’m going to do the same’. They say that laughing, but they say it anyway,” Catherine Forzi.
Wilfried Fonck, national secretary of UFAP-Unsa Justice, does not hide her concern by listing the facts of violence experienced by other staff in recent months: in July, a supervisor from the Aix-Luynes remand center was beaten in the parking lot of his home after an argument with an inmate imprisoned for a narcotics case; A year earlier, one of his colleagues from the same prison was the victim of an attempt to fire his vehicle, parked to his home – indicted last October, one of the authors admitted to having answered A contract to “put a pressure stroke” for “5,000 euros”; In September, a supervisor from the Health Prison in Paris was assaulted by three people at his home, accusing him recent excavations in the isolation district. While Gérald Darmanin announced in early January the creation of a “test” prison dedicated to the detention of “100 largest drug traffickers”, the union representative claims a “advanced reflection” on the protection of agents, and expresses His questions: “Whether or not to make a bunker prison, there will always be flaws and pressures on the agents. How do we minimize this risk?”
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