a corruption network involving a clerk dismantled at the Meaux penitentiary center

In total, six people, including two prison officers, were indicted.

It is a case which illustrates “the risk of corruption within our own institutions”, specifies the public prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, in a press release published Thursday, December 21. A network involving two Meaux prison officers, including a clerk, was dismantled after drug traffickers were handed over or attempted to be released. The investigation concerns facts that began in 2021.

The specialized interregional jurisdiction of Paris had charged the gendarmerie with an investigation in May 2022.following the discovery of several suspicious file consultations and modifications within the Meaux penitentiary center, as well as surrenders or attempted releases attributable to the non-transmission of requests within procedural deadlines”said the prosecution.

In total, six people were indicted on Wednesday for active and passive corruption by and on a person entrusted with a public service mission, organized gang fraud in judgment, misappropriation of the purpose of files, criminal conspiracy in sight of offenses punishable by ten years of imprisonment, the Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed on Thursday. All were placed in pre-trial detention.

Criminal records modified to intervene in detention periods

At the center of the investigations, a prison administration clerk stationed in Meaux, aged around thirty, is suspected of having modified criminal files and of not having transmitted certain requests, which would have resulted in to bring down committal warrants.

One of the challenges of the investigations will be to establish whether the errors entered in the criminal files or the deadlines for transmitting files not respected are all voluntary and sponsored, or if they are simple errors due to a lack of training. or at too fast a pace of work. “Persons indicted or already convicted for serious crimes had and would have benefited from these interventions”underlines the magistrate.