He “wanted to take a breather”. An inmate from Nancy-Maxéville prison, who was on leave to take part in a performance at the Opéra de Lorraine, escaped on Friday at the end of the show, AFP learned on Monday from the city prosecutor’s office. Escape proceedings have been opened.
The individual, who “wanted to take a breather” while on leave at the Opéra de Lorraine, is “actively wanted” said the public prosecutor, François Pérain. This detainee from the Nancy-Maxéville prison escaped Friday at the end of the show, AFP learned Monday from the city prosecutor’s office. “A procedure for escape has been opened,” added the prosecutor.
Locked down since February 2019 for “acts of theft and aggravated violence”
The young man, born in 1999, had taken part in a participatory show created by the Opéra national de Lorraine, alongside other prisoners, inhabitants of the districts of Nancy and schoolchildren, accompanied by ten musicians from the opera symphony orchestra. The sentence enforcement judge had granted him permission to leave.
According to the daily L’Est Républicain, the young detainee read one of his poems on stage, then participated in the friendly drink organized after the performance, which the mayor of Nancy, Mathieu Klein, also attended. And at the end of the show, the prisoner “left the theater”, explaining that he “wanted to breathe”, specified François Pérain. He had been imprisoned since February 2019 for “acts of theft and aggravated violence”, according to the prosecution. He was to be released on September 1.