On April 14, 2018, the Paris Court of Appeal sealed the fate of Rédoine Faïd. The 45-year-old Creillois, with a criminal record already as long as his arm, is sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for a robbery which cost the life, in 2010, of a 25-year-old municipal police officer. The future of the one who had made himself known by touring TV sets to talk about his alleged redemption is all the more bleak as another trial for robbery awaits him in the months that follow. But Rédoine Faïd already has her mind elsewhere. Out. Far from the high walls of the high security prison of Réau, in Seine-et-Marne.
For many months already, he has been building a plan to make himself beautiful. If his script is up to the American films he adores so much, the end is much less romantic. From this Tuesday and for seven weeks, he is on trial for this incredible escape for which he faces life imprisonment. Eleven other people, suspected of having helped him to varying degrees, appear alongside him. They risk between ten and thirty years of criminal imprisonment.
Watched over like milk on fire…
Rédoine Faïd is a household name in the prison world. The man has already spent more than half of his life behind bars and scoured many prisons in the country. All the guards agree, the man is an easy prisoner, almost a model. Never one word over the other, respectful and polite. His detention at Réau is no exception to the rule. Despite regular searches of his cell, no phone was ever found there. Vigilance, however, remains maximum. He was placed in solitary confinement, given the status of “particularly guarded detainee”. It must be said that his reputation precedes him: the penitentiary has not forgotten that day in April 2013 when he escaped from Lille-Sequedin prison by blowing up five doors using explosives. He was caught a month later, but this flight through the front door was experienced as a humiliation.
At Réau, where he was transferred in the summer of 2017, several guards noted that the robber is particularly observant of security procedures. Likewise, without them knowing if it has the slightest connection, they noticed that since his arrival, several drones have flown over the establishment. So this Sunday, July 1, 2018, like every time he goes to the visiting room, Rédoine Faïd is thoroughly searched. RAS, as we say in the jargon. At 9:15 a.m., he finds one of his older brothers, Brahim, who is waiting for him with the TV program and some laundry. If this father of five children has a tidy life, he has kept a very strong bond with his chronic offender brother. That day, he had planned to come in the afternoon but Rédoine Faïd insisted on bringing the visiting room time forward: he wants to watch the round of 16 of the Football World Cup between Spain and Russia , he explained to her.
An escape in less than 8 minutes
11:18 a.m. The men have been talking about everything and nothing for almost two hours when a strange noise is heard above the penitentiary centre. A helicopter has just landed in the main courtyard of the prison, the only place without anti-intrusion ropes. The procedure forbids the guards to shoot. Too risky. They therefore watch the scene helplessly. The pilot, held at gunpoint by an armed man, is forced to stand in a stationary position, just above the prison, while two accomplices are busy in the courtyard of the establishment. One of them, heavily armed, stands guard, the second, equipped with a thermal grinder, cuts the lock that leads to the corridor of the visiting rooms.
At 11:21 a.m., he is already in the building. He cuts out two other doors before tackling that of Rédoine Faïd’s parlor. His brother, Brahim, remains banned. Quickly placed in police custody, he will be released… before being indicted a few months later, suspected of having participated in his escape, which he has always denied.
At 11:28 a.m., the helicopter had already taken off with an additional passenger. No shots were fired and guards watched helplessly as he left. When questioned, one of the guards remembers having found Rédoine Faïd “very serene”, “walking calmly”. Upon entering the aircraft, the fugitive addresses the pilot: “I am neither a terrorist nor a criminal”, he would have assured him. But the scaffolded scenario is far from over, and the aircraft takes the direction of Charles-de-Gaulle airport. The pilot was ordered to land near an industrial zone in Gonesse, in Seine-Saint-Denis. Barely on the ground, the fire commando – not without difficulty – the device. The driver was hit and then left haggard, shirtless, on the side of the road. “The closer the trial approaches, the more my client has flashbacks,” says his lawyer, Me Marie-Christine Desarbres. At the same time, he is eager to put an end to this whole story, but he is anxious at the idea of finding himself face to face with those who kidnapped him. »
An ultra-prepared commando
Questioned after the fact, this professional pilot, who worked on the base of Lognes, in Seine-et-Marne, says that that day, he had taken charge of a father and his son, the Lepetits. This is the third time the duo has flown with him. Each time, they pay in cash. The man found them a funny look, even went so far as to question a policeman friend, but has nothing to reproach them for. This July 1, when they show up, they ask for a one-hour flight instead of the 30 minutes scheduled. But quickly, the two men ask to make a stopover, claiming a pee break. When they come up, both are armed. According to the pilot’s account, they then bring him to his knees, beat him and threaten to attack his family if he does not follow their orders. They order him to make a second stopover to pick up a third heavily armed man with heavy bags before heading to the prison.
While the flames still lick the cabin of the helicopter, the four men pursue their beauty, by road this time. An accomplice comes to recover them aboard a Renault Mégane stolen a few months earlier. At 11:49 am, the vehicle rushes into a parking lot in Aulnay-sous-Bois. He will be found three quarters of an hour later, charred. The investigators know that the commando left the scene aboard a Kangoo with the Enedis logo, but at 12:11 p.m., his trace was lost on the A1. Thus begins a manhunt of unprecedented scale to find Rédoine Faïd and his accomplices. Because looking beautiful is one thing, disappearing into the wild is another…
Find tomorrow Monday on 20 minutes the story of the hunt for the famous robber, as his trial opens on Tuesday before the Paris Assize Court…