Wrongly imprisoned, man sentenced to suspended sentence dies in his cell in Meaux

The 51-year-old man was tried on Friday for sexual assault and aggravated violence. Although he could have benefited from a reduced sentence, he was nevertheless placed in detention due to an “erroneous entry”, the prosecution acknowledged.

A tragic imbroglio. A 51-year-old man died in his cell at the prison in Meaux-Chauconin (Seine-et-Marne), Saturday, after being wrongly incarcerated. The public prosecutor of Meaux, Jean-Baptiste Bladier, announced this in a press release on Monday, August 19, confirming information from the ParisianAn investigation into the “causes of death” has been opened, entrusted to the interdepartmental management of the judicial police of the department, the magistrate said.

Three days earlier, this individual had been placed in pretrial detention in this penitentiary center, in the context of a sexual assault case. He was tried in immediate appearance on Friday, August 16, before the criminal court of Meaux. At the end of the hearing, the fifty-year-old was found guilty, in particular, of sexual assault, aggravated violence and sequestration. He was sentenced for these facts to three years of imprisonment with a two-year probationary period.

The Meaux court did not, however, request a detention order against the defendant. When a prison sentence is equal to or less than one year, it can be modified in the form of an electronic bracelet, semi-liberty or external placement. “If we stick to the decision, this gentleman should have been released on Friday evening.”confirms to franceinfo Alexandra Zannou, the lawyer for the civil party. But “following an error, the administrative document completed by the prosecution at the end of the hearing and intended to inform the penitentiary establishment of the sentence pronounced, bore the erroneous mention (…) ‘continued detention'”, explains the prosecutor.

It was following this inaccurate mention that the man found himself held in detention upon his return from court. According to the prosecution, the guards quickly had to intervene in his cell due to “his behavior, characterized by a high state of excitement and incoherent speech”The prisoner’s death was then confirmed on the spot on Saturday, the prosecution added, without specifying the cause of death.An autopsy is due to be carried out soon at the Paris Institute of Forensic Medicine.