Redoine Faïd, in 2010, during a TV show. – IBO / SIPA
- On Thursday, February 27, the appeal trial of Redoine Faïd and three other defendants begins at the Pas-de-Calais Assize Court in Saint-Omer for three weeks.
- The four are to be retried for organized robbery and criminal conspiracy after an attack on an armored van in 2011 near Arras.
- Security has been strengthened for the trial of an accused who has already escaped prison twice.
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Enhanced security for a particular convicted person. Thursday February 27 opens the trial on appeal from
Redoine Faïd and three other defendants, Said Agouni, Fahri Berisa and Ahmed Yekken, at the Pas-de-Calais Assize Court in Saint-Omer. It should last three weeks.
The four men are to be retried for organized robbery and criminal association. In October 2017, the Northern Assize Court sentenced Redoine Faïd to 18 years in prison. He had been found guilty, along with four other accomplices, of having explosively attacked an armored van by Loomis on a national road in Pas-de-Calais, near Arras, in March 2011. More than two million euros had been stolen.
Postponement of trial?
Unless the trial is postponed, what his lawyers will ask because lawyers strike, the court of Saint-Omer will therefore be the scene of an extraordinary hearing because of the personality of the main accused. Convicted several times for robbery, Redoine Faïd escaped twice from prison. The first time in Sequedin, in the North, in 2013 with the help of explosives.
The second of Réaux, in 2018, by helicopter.
That is to say if the man will be watched during the trial. The sub-prefect and the Saint-Omer prosecutor announced on Monday the security device which will be deployed for fear of a new escape attempt. The area will be confined. Two streets, including that of the court, will be closed to traffic and parking. Funerals cannot, for example, be celebrated in the cathedral adjoining the courthouse during the trial.
Security works for 250,000 euros
However, surrounding schools will remain open. In addition, an order prohibiting overflight was taken, except for helicopters of the State services, according to The voice of the North.
The Saint-Omer courthouse also carried out specific security works for 250,000 euros, including the installation of two metal detector portals, with an X-ray baggage control system and a generator. After an enhanced identity check, the public, subject to availability, may attend the trial.
For his part, Redoine Faïd started a hunger strike to protest against his conditions of detention in Vendin-le-Vieil, near Lens.
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