Carcassonne Court: detainees smear themselves with cooking oil before insulting prison officers
This Thursday, October 12, two young men aged 26 and 19 appeared before the Carcassonne court for insults and violence against a person holding public authority and a prison officer. Their change of cell being impossible, the two defendants slathered themselves… with cooking oil before insulting the staff.
It all began on Tuesday, September 5 in the early morning when two of the three inmates in cell no. 8 of the Carcassonne remand center asked to change cells. A request which cannot be accepted immediately, the establishment being overcrowded. Faced with this objection, Fahd, a 26-year-old Moroccan, and Akram, a 19-year-old Spaniard, caused a loud noise on the door of their 9 m² cell. When an intervention team arrived to calm them down, they found the two men wearing only boxer shorts and completely coated with cooking oil. The liquid used, as well as water, also covered the floor and the courtyard of the prison room.
The detainees then took advantage of the opening of their cell to get out, triggering a scene of violence with the agents. Akram allegedly pushed one of the supervisors in the chest, causing him to slip on the puddle of oil, causing him to fall. Injured in the thigh, he was transported to the emergency room of the Carcassonne hospital center. Fahd allegedly splashed the head of detention with water. After being returned to their cell, the defendants were subsequently transferred to the disciplinary unit. If the detainees both insulted the agents during their transfer with “Son of a bitch”, “dirty PD”, Fahd threatened to kill one of them: “You will see what ‘it’s going to happen to you when I go out, you’re a dead man’.
Both contest the violence
It is in this context that the two young men appeared this Thursday, October 12, 2023 at the Carcassonne court. On the stand, Fahd apologizes for “his excess anger: we no longer got along with the third person in the room. He took pills morning, noon and evening. I had been asking to change cells for 15 days, I sent several letters, I couldn’t wait any longer. Although he acknowledges the insults towards the agents, he nevertheless denies the death threats: “That’s not the way I speak, I would never have threatened to kill someone. » Ditto for the oil, “I don’t see how they would have managed to control me if I had it all over my body”. Same situation for Akram, who recognizes the insults but refutes the violence. “They were the ones who took me out by force and who put me on the ground for free, we can also see it on the surveillance videos (images viewed by the prosecution before the hearing, editor’s note).”
They were the ones who dragged me out and put me on the ground
Me Sarda, lawyer for two agents – one not having filed a civil suit – and the head of detention, denounces the minimization of the facts: “I hear people say ‘yes I insulted I am sorry’ but these outrages are unpleasant for those who receive them. Remand centers have a pressure-cooker effect and officers should not suffer this.” Defense lawyers Mes Ferkache and Koulli are clear: nothing proves the presence of violence, even the videos. “The hearing of the first supervisor is interesting,” expresses Mr. Ferkache, “he is the only one who does not become a civil party and the only one who does not speak at any time of violence and death threats in his hearing. »
After deliberation, Fahd and Akram were released for the acts of violence but otherwise sentenced to six months in prison with continued pre-trial detention.
