• Three prisoners, who were to be tried on Monday for immediate appearance in Valencia, were released.

  • No one was able to take them to court.

  • They were therefore released pending trial on May 31.

Three men who were to appear Monday in Valencia, including two for domestic violence, were released for lack of an available escort to extract them from prison and send them to court, we learned from the prosecution on Wednesday.

These detainees arrested during the weekend - the third for a narcotics case - should have been tried in immediate appearance Monday afternoon, said prosecutor Alex Perrin, confirming information from France Bleu Drôme.

But on Monday morning, the regional branch of the Authority for the regulation and programming of judicial extractions (Arpej, which falls under the prison administration), announced that its agents based at the prison of Valence could not ensure this mission. .

Staff in training and police officers understaffed

According to the radio, a mandatory training day for the latter explains their unavailability.

Contacted by AFP, the interregional directorate of the prison administration was not able to communicate on the case immediately.

In such a case, the mission then falls to the police.

But the Departmental Directorate of Public Security was also unable to allocate the necessary staff due to an outbreak of Covid-19 in the Valence police station.

The virus affects in particular the legal aid brigade which replaces the prison escort services if necessary.

"Monday our operational capacity, because of the patients that we have and of the contact cases, did not allow us to carry out this mission", declared the director of the police force in the Drôme, Noël Fayet, at the microphone of France Bleu, assuming a "rare" choice.

“Since the start of the year, we have devoted more hours to these extraction missions than to roadside checks, for example,” he added.

Judged on May 31 but free in the meantime

Members of the Valence aid and legal aid brigade are already mobilized this week to ensure the security of a trial session at the Drôme Assize Court, according to the police.

The released suspects could not be placed under judicial control, due to a lack of prosecution.

They are summoned to appear in court, freely, on May 31.

"But we made sure that the victims of domestic violence are made safe by warning the gendarmerie brigades concerned," said the prosecutor, specifying that a "serious danger" phone was also urgently assigned to one of them, "at least".

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