Penalties of up to one year in prison were pronounced on Thursday by the Criminal Court of Lille against six prison guards who were tried for “violence in a meeting by a person holding public authority” on a detainee from a northern prison.
Two of the defendants were sentenced to a one-year suspended prison sentence and a two-year suspension from the prison administration. The other four received a six-month suspended prison sentence and a one-year suspension from the prison administration.
These guards, employed at the prison of Sequedin, near Lille, had been placed in police custody on September 27, on the basis of a complaint from a prisoner, then under judicial control.
Suspension and temporary ban from practicing
The prosecution had requested six months in prison for five of them, and eight months for the first supervisor, responsible for the team, as well as a permanent ban on exercising in the public service for all.
During the hearing on October 13, these six men, aged 30 to 44, admitted to the facts that had occurred on January 3, when they intervened for a disturbance in a cell. Under arrest warrant as part of an investigation for drug trafficking, the defendant plaintiff had been discovered naked in the shower, with a frying pan in his hand, insulting his fellow prisoner.
The scene was captured on prison CCTV cameras. Broadcast during the hearing, the recording shows the guards taking the detainee out of his cell, then handcuffing him, hands behind his back, completely naked, before dragging him on the ground for a few meters. During this transfer of several minutes, he will suffer violence, in particular a cleat behind the head which makes him fall or even kicks. The video also shows the victim thrown naked into a puddle in the middle of a wet yard, just before being brought to the disciplinary unit.