Drones buzzed French prison months before helicopter escape

News

Drones buzzed French prison months before helicopter escape

2018-07-03 15:32 Last Updated At：15:32

Drones seen buzzing above a French prison months ago may have been on a reconnaissance mission ahead of the helicopter escape of a notorious French criminal — his second breakout in five years.

France's justice minister said Monday that several drones were spotted flying over Reau Prison south of Paris a few months ago. She speculated they were linked to the escape Sunday of career criminal and murder convict Redoine Faid.

Heavily armed men landed a helicopter in a prison courtyard, used a grinding machine to break open the door of the visiting room where Faid was seeing his brother, and escorted the prisoner to freedom.

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said 2,900 officers are now looking for Faid in a massive manhunt.

"Police forces are fully mobilized in order to find this person," Philippe told RTL. "We know he is dangerous. We know he is a determined person and I want to find him as soon as possible."

Faid's brother was in custody Monday.

Faid, 46, is an avid fan of caper films, the author of a confessional book about his life of crime and a serial robber of banks and armored trucks.

He was serving 25 years for an attempted armed robbery in 2010 that led to a high-speed chase and a shootout with police that killed 26-year-old officer Aurelie Fouquet. Faid had already escaped prison once before, in 2013, by blasting his way out with explosives that were hidden in tissue packs.

"Redoine Faid is someone who has freedom in his DNA. He also has lawbreaking in his DNA," Laurent-Franck Lienard, the lawyer for Fouquet's family, told RTL radio on Monday. "If there was one inmate to keep a close eye on, it was him."

French media reported that three men took the helicopter pilot hostage at a flying club in the Paris region.

The armed men set off smoke canisters to hide from prison video cameras and the helicopter touched down in the only part of the complex that was not covered by anti-helicopter netting, said a member of the prison guards' union, Loic Delbroc.

The helicopter pilot was later released with no injuries. The helicopter was found burned out in a town north of Paris.

A wanted notice for Faid said he drove off in a utility truck.

Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet said authorities were urgently looking for gaps in the security system that allowed the brazen breakout. She said authorities were particularly focused on several drones that flew over the prison months ago.

Faid was a fan of Robert De Niro, Michael Mann and Steve McQueen, according to Frederic Ploquin, who met him several times while researching a book about the French underworld.

"He always tried to bring to reality all these things that he learned in the movies," Ploquin told BFM television. "This escape is very much in his style."

Faid's departure is far from the first French prison escape via helicopter. In 1999, a helicopter dangled cords into an exercise yard at Marseille's prison and plucked five inmates out, although one was killed and three were recaptured.

One of the most spectacular French aerial escapes occurred in 1986, when a seasoned criminal, Michel Vaujour, was plucked from La Sante prison in Paris by his lover aboard a helicopter.

Protesters rally in France against Barnier’s appointment as prime minister

2024-09-07 23:30 Last Updated At：23:40

PARIS (AP) — Thousands of protesters took to the streets across France on Saturday, responding to a call from a far-left party leader who criticized as a “power grab” the president's appointment of a conservative new prime minister, Michel Barnier.

The protests directly challenged President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to bypass a prime minister from the far-left bloc following a deeply dividing —and divided — legislative election result in July. Authorities did not record a huge turnout nationwide.

The left, particularly the France Unbowed party, views Barnier’s conservative background as rejecting the electorate’s will, further intensifying the EU’s second economy’s already charged political atmosphere. Saturday's demonstrators denounced Barnier’s appointment as denying democracy, echoing France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Melenchon’s fiery rhetoric from recent days.

In Paris, protesters gathered at Place de la Bastille and tensions ran high as police prepared for potential clashes. Some carried placards reading “Where is my vote?”

At the head of the Parisian procession, Melenchon spoke passionately, declaring that “the French people are in rebellion. They have entered into revolution.”

“There will be no pause, no truce. I call you to a long-term battle,” he added.

In the southwestern city of Montauban, a rally speaker told the crowd that “the people have been ignored.” Other protests took place is some 150 locations nationwide.

While Barnier was meeting with healthcare workers at Paris’ Necker Hospital for his first official visit as prime minister, opponents say the unrest in the streets is shaping his government’s future.

Barnier, who is working to assemble his Cabinet, expressed a commitment to listening to public concerns, particularly about France’s public services.

Jordan Bardella, leader of the far-right National Rally (RN), warned that Barnier was “under surveillance” by his party as well. Bardella, speaking at the Chalons-en-Champagne fair, called for the prime minister to include his party's priorities in his agenda, particularly regarding national security and immigration.

Barnier, 73, is the oldest of the 26 prime ministers that have served modern France’s Fifth Republic. He replaces the youngest, Gabriel Attal, who was 34 when he was appointed just eight months ago.

Attal was forced to resign after Macron’s centrist government performed poorly in the July snap legislative elections. Macron called the election in the hopes of securing a clear mandate, but it instead produced a hung parliament, leaving the president without a legislative majority and plunging his administration into turmoil.

Attal was also France’s first openly gay prime minister. French media and some of Macron’s opponents, who immediately criticized Barnier’s appointment, quickly dug up that, when serving in parliament in 1981, the new prime minister had been among 155 lawmakers who voted against a law that decriminalized homosexuality.

Though Barnier brings five decades of political experience, his appointment offers no guarantee of resolving the crisis. His challenge is immense: He must form a government that can navigate a fractured National Assembly, where the political spectrum is deeply divided between the far left, far right, and Macron’s weakened centrist bloc. The outcome of the snap poll, far from providing clarity, has only served to destabilize both the country and Macron’s grip on power.

The president’s decision to turn to Barnier, a seasoned political operator with deep ties to the European Union, is seen as an attempt to bring stability to French politics. And Barnier, who gained prominence as the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, has faced daunting tasks before.

Critics say Macron, elected on the promise of a break from the old political order, now finds himself battling the instability he once promised to overcome.