Escape in the Val-d’Oise. One inmate of Osny remand prison escaped Tuesday, December 21, in the evening, from Pontoise hospital. Louis Folker, 28, was undergoing a medical extraction after he “was discovered in his cell in the process of mutilating himself”, the prison administration told franceinfo. It would be a “mock suicide attempt”, said a judicial source to France Televisions. In the hospital parking lot, an escort agent received a gun shot from an accomplice.
Armed with a shotgun, the woman awaiting the inmate’s arrival, with the help of a lookout, slightly injured the officer, who was protected by his bulletproof vest. The officer’s life is not in danger, the prison administration assured. The detainee and his accomplice then fled and are currently wanted. The Versailles judicial police were seized of the investigation of the heads of “organized gang escape and attempted murder on a person holding public authority”, the Pontoise prosecutor’s office reported in a press release.
The Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti, went to the Pontoise hospital on Wednesday afternoon where he spoke with the injured prison administration officer, who is about to leave after a night under observation. The Keeper of the Seals then went to the Osny remand center to dialogue with prison officials and trade unions, before speaking to the press.
According to the prosecution, the man who fled had been in pre-trial detention since October 1, during the investigation into an assassination committed at the end of September in Valenton (Val-de-Marne). “He has also been convicted on multiple occasions, in particular for traffic offenses and aggravated acts of violence”, added the prosecution.
Asked about the absence of weapons carried by the agents, the Chancellery declared that “the level of risk should be placed in context”, with “two escapes in 2020 out of 54,371 medical extractions”. In 2021, for eight of the thirteen escapes identified, including that of Osny, an inmate took advantage of a transfer to the hospital to dress up. “Over the past three years, only one of these escapes has occurred with an external complicity. The most classic scenario is that of the prisoner’s flight”, we said at Place Vendôme.