Things returned to normal at Condé-sur-Sarthe prison, around 2 p.m., after a hostage-taking in the morning. An inmate, Sofiane Rasmouk, sentenced to life for rape and attempted murder, assaulted and held hostage two guards on Tuesday, including a woman he released at midday. The facts began at 10:15 am, when Sofiane Rasmouk injured the first supervisor in the right eye. The hostage taker finally surrendered, Justice Minister Eric Dupont-Moretti announced on Twitter.
Negotiations had been initiated by the prison staff with the detainee, while the regional intervention and security teams (ERIS) from Rennes went to the site, according to the Ministry of Justice. The media were kept at a safe distance from the prison.
In September 2017, a sentence of life imprisonment for rape, attempted rape and attempted murder on two young women in 2013 was confirmed while Rasmouk, also convicted in cases of rape, attempted murder, theft, trafficking in drugs, insults or degradations, was in semi-liberty. Following the requisitions of the Advocate General, the Assize Court had increased the security sentence from 18 to 22 years.
Already several serious incidents
The Condé-sur-Sarthe high-security penitentiary center has experienced several serious incidents while it is one of the most recent and modern in France, opened in January 2013. In March 2019, Michaël Chiolo, had attacked two supervisors with a ceramic knife. The assailant, who was serving a thirty-year sentence and radicalized in prison, then retreated with his partner for nearly ten hours in the family life unit (UVF) of the establishment.
After attempts at negotiations, elite police forces launched the assault, wounding the assailant and killing his partner. A few months later, Francis Dorffer, armed with a homemade weapon, had kept a supervisor and a trainee in his cell for five hours.