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Police snare French 'Most Wanted' six weeks after jailbreak

Agence France-PresseJune 14, 2013 18:06
French police on Wednesday captured the country's most-wanted man in a hotel outside Paris six weeks after he dynamited his way out of prison in a spectacular jailbreak. Redoine Faid, a famed 41-year-old career thief who had been serving time for robbery and risked a heavy new sentence over the 2010 death of a policewoman, was arrested in the early hours at a hotel in Pontault-Combault, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) east of central Paris.

Guantanamo camp burns through $900,000 a year per inmate

May 7, 2013 14:05
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — It's been dubbed the most expensive prison on Earth and President Barack Obama cited the cost this week as one of many reasons to shut down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, which burns through some $900,000 per prisoner annually.

Prisons overcrowded in nearly half of European countries

Agence France-PresseMay 3, 2013 21:45
Prisons are overcrowded in nearly half of the countries across western and eastern Europe, where there are in some cases 150 prisoners for 100 places, a report published Friday showed. Twenty of the 47 countries in the Council of Europe have more prisoners than places available, according to the report published by the pan-European organisation which compiled statistics for 2011. Serbia led with 157.6 prisoners for 100 places, followed by Greece with 151.7 prisoners and Italy with 147 prisoners, the report said.

France, Belgium hunt convict after explosive jailbreak

April 14, 2013 16:18
Police in France and Belgium were intensively searching Sunday for a dangerous convicted bank robber who dynamited his way out of a French prison on the weekend with the help of as-yet unidentified accomplices. A Europe-wide alert for the fugitive, 40-year-old Redoine Faid, is in effect, as is an Interpol bulletin, and France has set more than 100 investigators on his trail.

Top French gangster in spectacular jailbreak

April 13, 2013 17:00
One of France's most dangerous gangsters, known for brazen attacks on cash-in-transit vehicles, on Saturday blasted his way out of jail after briefly taking several wardens hostage, officials said. Redoine Faid, who risked a heavy sentence over the 2010 death of a policewoman, used explosives to blast through five prison doors and break free in the northern town of Sequedin. Police and helicopters were trying to track the 40-year-old, who set fire to his getaway car in the south of the city of Lille before getting into a second vehicle.

Top French gangster in spectacular jailbreak

April 13, 2013 15:15
One of France's most dangerous gangsters, known for brazen attacks on cash-in-transit vehicles, on Saturday blasted his way out of jail after briefly taking several wardens hostage, officials said. Redoine Faid, who risked a heavy sentence over the 2010 death of a policewoman, used explosives to blast through five prison doors and break free in the northern town of Sequedin. Police and helicopters were trying to track the 40-year-old, who set fire to his getaway car in the south of the city of Lille before getting into a second vehicle.

Top French gangster in spectacular jailbreak

April 13, 2013 12:01
One of France's most dangerous gangsters, known for brazen attacks on cash-in-transit vehicles, on Saturday blasted his way out of jail after taking several wardens hostage, officials said. Redoine Faid, who risked a heavy sentence over the 2010 death of a policewoman, used explosives to blast through five prison doors and break free in the northern town of Sequedin. Police and helicopters were trying to track the 40-year-old, who set fire to his getaway car in the south of the city of Lille before getting into a second vehicle.

900 Weapons seized from inmates in Venezuela

April 8, 2013 17:01
Caracas, Apr 8 (EFE).- Searches of Venezuela's prisons have led to the seizure of 900 weapons since July 2011, penal system Minister Iris Varela said Monday. Authorities have also arrested soldiers and police who were collaborating with "mafias that operate with less and less power" in the country's jails, Varela said before the ministers of defense, Adm. Diego Morelo, and of the interior, Gen. Nestor Reverol. Varela made the statement on the occasion of 679 guns being destroyed together with other arms confiscated from criminals.

Venezuela inmates open jailhouse nightclub: report

March 30, 2013 14:30
Venezuelan inmates have opened their own nightclub and hosted friends and family at an inaugural bash complete with strippers and a light and sound show, a newspaper reported Saturday. The late-night party highlighted the plight of the crime-ridden country's overcrowded penal system, where criminals often use bribery and intimidation to exercise virtual control over the facilities built to incarcerate them.

Dire overcrowding, use of force in Bulgaria jails: rights group

March 26, 2013 14:01
Drastic overcrowding, humiliating conditions and excessive use of force by prison wardens are part of daily life in Bulgaria's jails, a rights group said Tuesday. Compounding the problem, people without means have in some cases admitted to committing minor crimes in the European Union's poorest country just to spend the cold winter in jail. "To a great extent the prisons played the role of shelters for poverty-stricken people," the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee rights group said in a report, adding nearly 9,500 people were imprisoned at the end of 2012.
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