#prison protests

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France: Guards' union OKs plan to address prison protests

PARIS/January 26, 2018 (AP)(STL.News) — The largest labor union representing France’s prison guards said Friday that it has accepted the justice minister’s plan for improving working conditions, a move that could end nationwide prison protests sparked by alleged assaults.

Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet proposed better pay and improved security measures to protect guards from the most dangerous inmates, as part of the plan presented to the union Thursday.

The UFAP-UNSA said in a statement Friday that it would sign the proposal, which also would allow for housing 1,500 convicts suspected of Islamic radicalization in special units.

Belloubet welcomed the union’s announcement, saying in a written statement she “now hopes all guards will get back to work to ensure the security of prisons.”

The protests by prison guards, which included blocking prison entrances and work stoppages, entered their 12th day Friday. The blockades started after a radicalized inmate allegedly attacked three guards with a knife at a high-security prison in northern France on Jan. 11. More attacks by inmates have since been reported in about a half-dozen prisons.

The justice minister’s proposal would improve safety conditions with more thorough searches in prisons. Guards also would be equipped with new gear, including concealed bullet-proof jackets and hand-held personal security alarms.

The plan also calls for adding 1,100 new jobs over four years and increasing the annual bonus for guards to 1,400 euros ($1,750) per year.

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Prison protests threaten 1st trial linked to Paris attacks

PARIS/January 24, 2018(AP)(STL.News)— Protests by French prison guards are threatening to disrupt the first trial related to the deadly Islamic State attacks on Paris in 2015.

Jawad Bendaoud is scheduled to appear in a Paris court Wednesday for a much-awaited trial. He’s accused of helping two of the attackers — including the suspected ringleader — hide from police when they were the most wanted men in France.

The Nov. 13, 2015, attacks on Paris cafes, the national stadium and the Bataclan concert hall left 130 people dead in the country’s deadliest extremist violence since World War II. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility.

Bendaoud, an outspoken 31-year-old repeat offender, provided lodging to the two attackers, but has claimed he didn’t know they were two of the Paris attackers or even wanted extremists. He faces up to six years in prison if convicted.

However he may not be able to show up to trial at all. He was still in the Fresnes prison south of Paris Wednesday morning, according to Cedric Boyer, representing the Force Ouvriere union at the prison.

Boyer told The Associated Press about 200 guards are protesting outside the prison, adding that only “a handful” of workers crossed the strike picket line and went to work. Guards have been protesting around France over recent attacks by inmates, and unions have called on guards to mount a nationwide campaign to block suspects from reaching trials.

In the Paris attacks trial, Bendaoud is to be joined by two other suspects: Mohamed Soumah, accused of acting as an intermediary with Bendaoud to find lodging for the two fugitives, and Youssef Ait-Boulahcen, accused of being aware of their whereabouts and not informing the authorities.

Both have denied the accusations. Soumah faces up to six years in prison and Ait-Boulahcen up to five years in prison if found guilty.

While the trial doesn’t directly deal with the attacks themselves, it is important for survivors and families of victims who are seeking justice.

Of the nine men who directly carried out the Paris attacks, seven died at the scene. The two surviving killers fled and hid in the squat Bendaoud rented to them in the town of Saint-Denis north of Paris, and then died during a violent several-hour-long police assault on Nov. 18, 2015.

Bendaoud won immediate, though involuntary, fame all over France when he gave a surprising TV interview during the police operation on the apartment. He approached the security perimeter set up around the besieged building and spoke to journalists to clumsily proclaim his innocence.

“I wasn’t aware they were terrorists. I was asked to do service, I did service, sir,” he told a reporter from BFMTV channel.

“I was told to put up two people for three days, I helped out normally,” he explained, before being interrupted by a police officer who came to arrest him in front of the live camera.

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Samuel Petrequin in Paris contributed.