It’s a little haunting music which, little by little, became heady: what if Mohamed Amra hadn’t really escaped? What if the most wanted man in France was, in reality, the victim of a kidnapping as part of, for example, a settling of scores? His lawyer, Mr. Hugues Vigier, was one of the first to raise this possibility, the day after the deadly attack on the prison convoy. Saying he was “stunned” by this affair, he confided, at the microphone of BFM, having “a hard time imagining that this boy could be involved”. And the advice to raise the possibility “that we came to look for him not to free him but to have him available and perhaps make him pay for what we suppose he would have committed”.
Some 350 police officers are currently mobilized to try to find the detainee and the commando who carried out this attack, which was as detailed as it was violent. “All investigations have been paused to move forward on this priority file,” assures a police source. At this stage of the investigations, no leads have been ruled out. However, several well-informed sources are very skeptical about the hypothesis of a “kidnapping”. “Hard to believe”, “a little far-fetched”, “we’re not in Hollywood”, they respond, one by one. “Basically, this does not change anything in the investigations but it is true that it is a less likely scenario,” continues a source close to the investigation.
A seasoned criminal
To support the hypothesis of a kidnapping, some rely on video surveillance images: Mohamed Amra seems to take a little time to get out of the van. Nearly a minute and 40 seconds pass before his figure, dressed all in black, with white sneakers on his feet, appears. In reality, looking closer at the images, an attacker attempts several times to open the vehicle. In vain. A supervisor, under the gun of an automatic weapon, will eventually open the door. What also about his escape attempt a few days earlier? Mohamed Amra had started sawing the bars of his cell and had just been placed in solitary confinement. The most skeptical questioned this attempt even though a large-scale operation was being prepared; others saw it as a sign of his determination.
If several police sources admit to having been surprised by such an operation to free Mohamed Amra, they call for his profile not to be minimized. Without being a “baron” of drug trafficking, he is described as “a sponsor”, in close connection with Marseille drug traffickers. At just 30 years old, the Rouen resident nicknamed “the Fly” has already been convicted thirteen times for various crimes, mainly theft and violence. But it is the current affairs which suggest the dangerousness of his profile. Mohamed Amra is indicted – among other things – for attempted assassination in Rouen and organized gang murder, kidnapping and kidnapping in Marseille.
Certainly, Mohamed Amra was not a “particularly notable detainee” (DPS) but his security had recently been revised upwards, the Paris prosecutor indicated the same evening. Two additional agents – in addition to the three required – were deployed during this transfer. All were armed. Precautions which unfortunately were not sufficient.