At 51, the multi-recidivist robber appears from this Tuesday and until October 20 before the Paris Assize Court in the company of eleven co-accused for his escape from Réau prison, in Seine-et-Marne, in July 2018. The second in five years, after that of 2013 of the prison of Sequedin, in the north of France.
2 mins
Seven minutes and thirty-three seconds. This is the time the commando took to recover Rédoine Faïd. On July 1, 2018, a helicopter parked in the main courtyard of the prison, which is not equipped with safety lines. Two men with assault rifles come out. Rachid Faïd, one of the robber’s brothers, and one of their nephews. They light smoke bombs then cut out doors with a grinder until they reach the visiting room where Rédoine Faïd awaits them. Not a shot is fired.
Then begins a run that will last three months. Hundreds of police are mobilized. Aided by their clan, Rédoine, Rachid Faïd and their nephew are mainly hiding in the family stronghold of Creil, north of Paris. They hide under niqabs when they go out, but end up not being spotted.
Link with Corsican banditry
To the investigators, Rédoine Faïd will say that he regrets having involved his family, but will not deliver anything on his escape, which he would have prepared for months from his prison, with the help in particular of Corsican criminals.
The one who had started the robberies around 18 remained under the radar until 1995/1997, when he started the hold-up with home hostage taking, before moving on to attacks on armored vans. Rédoine Faïd was notably sentenced to twelve years’ imprisonment for his activities as a “sausage maker” for bank managers or jewelers and fifteen years for the attack on a van in Villepinte in 1997. In 2018, he was sentenced on appeal to 25 years in prison for his role as “organizer” of a failed robbery in 2010, which cost the life of municipal police officer Aurélie Fouquet in Villiers-sur-Marne (Val-de-Marne).
There remains a question: who is the last member of the commando, the one who remained in the helicopter with the pilot taken hostage? Nicknamed “the Corsican”, the police failed to identify him.
(With AFP)