In France, an inmate took five hostages in prison

In the central prison in the commune of Arles in the south of France, a prisoner took five people hostage - four medical staff and a guard. This was reported by the newspaper La Provence on January 3.

As the media outlet notes, the attacker is armed with a homemade knife and threatens to use it against the detainees. The perpetrator of the seizure is a 37-year-old man serving an 18-year sentence in prison for sex crimes. In addition, he is also known to French law enforcement officials as a follower of radical ideas.

"However, the hostage-taking is not based on Islamist motives, but on the man's dissatisfaction with the refusal to transfer him to another prison," the newspaper points out.

Several teams of police are now stationed around the prison. Also expected to arrive and intervene in the situation are special response and security teams ERIS, which are formed specifically to monitor the security of prison facilities.

It is noted that the institution, known as Arlesian House, is often on the pages of newspapers, which point out its too dense occupancy rate (almost 85%). It is designed for inmates sentenced to long terms.

In early December last year, the Kemerovo region office of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation reported that six prisoners who took hostages in Kemerovo SIZO No. 1 in August 2022 were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 10 to 28 years. The defendants were found guilty under paragraphs "a", "g" and "g" of part 2 of article 206 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Seizure and retention of a hostage by a group of persons by prior conspiracy") and part 2 of article 321 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Use of violence and threat of violence against an employee of a place of detention"). On the day of the crime, the law enforcers released the FSIN officers a few hours later.