- 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 men are to be retried for organized gang robbery and criminal association after the attack on an armored van in 2011, near Arras.
- Security has been strengthened for this trial of an accused who has already escaped from prison twice.
Reinforced security for a particular convicted person. On Thursday, February 27, the appeal trial of Redoine Faïd and three other accused, Said Agouni, Fahri Berisa and Ahmed Yekken, begins 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 of criminal imprisonment. He had been found guilty, along with four other accomplices, of having explosively attacked an armored van of the Loomis company on a national road of Pas-de-Calais, near Arras, in March 2011. More than two million euros had been stolen.
Postponement of trial?
Unless the trial is postponed, which his lawyers are going to request because of the lawyers' strike, the Saint-Omer court 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.
This means that the man will be watched during the trial. The sub-prefect and the prosecutor of Saint-Omer announced, 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 state services, according to La Voix du Nord .
See our file on Redoine Faid
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, will be able to 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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- Redoine Faïd
- Robbery
- Assize Court
- Justice
- Trial