Béziers – on Tuesday September 27, in the courtyard of the detention house Gasquinoy in Beziers, Samuel (fictitious name) calls his wife from one of the telephone booths available to the detainees. Samuel, aged 47, was arrested at the end of July following an investigation relating to break-ins. That same day he is released and calls his wife to let her know the good news. But he has hardly had a chance to speak when a group of prisoners attacks him and shouts at him anti-Semitics insults. Some of them said to him: “We will rape your wife, dirty Jew!” His wife heard the threats, the blows and the screams on the other end of the line. He received hard blows to his face and the incident was swift and difficult. When the guards come to his aid, he suffers a serious knee injury, a few bruises to his face and a fractured wrist; he was hard hit when he fell on the floor.
“The perpetrators deny that they shouted at him anti-Semitic insults” reports the Béziers police. He is transferred to the hospital, undergoes medical examinations and the doctor grants him 45 days sick leave. The man is investigated and claims that since he was arrested and throughout the summer he has suffered insults from other prisoners, all on account of his religion. An investigation is launched within the detention house and the photos of the incident that were captured by a video camera, are carefully checked. This is an entirely new detention house.
Yesterday morning three prisoners were taken out of their cells and arrested in the Béziers police station. They were questioned at length on the subject, but denied part of the details.
“The victim alone talks about anti-Semitic shouts, the others deny it. The investigation does not state that this was the initial motive of the incident. We will probably never know the truth, as often happens in such cases in prisons”, states the Béziers police.
One of the suspects was released and returned yesterday to his cell, in which he stayed for other reasons. The other two will stand trial in court for group violence that caused loss of capacity to work for more than 8 days and for uttering racial insults, which may make the punishment more severe.
