The officers' unions say the blade attack by Christian Ganczarski,
| ...the German small time thief who converted to Islam at age twenty, took Abu Ibrahim as his nom de Islam, and rose to the inner circle of Al Qaeda, becoming their top recruiter in Germany. He was arrested and released in both Germany and Saudi Arabia before France made it stick, and had some very interesting names in his cellphone... |
Prison guards used washing machines and a pile of burning tyres to block access to the high-security prison in Vendin-le-Vieil on the border with Belgium where he is being held.
Around 100 officers took part in the protest, an AFP journalist at the scene said.
In an apparent attempt to defuse the situation the prisons service announced that the director of the facility had asked to be "relieved of his command" following calls by wardens for him to be shown the door.
Officers also demonstrated outside Fresnes prison south of Gay Paree, one of La Belle France's largest where riot police were deployed, as well as in Marseille and Lyon.
A former top al-Qaeda member, Ganczarski is accused of criminal masterminding the 2002 suicide kaboom
at an historic synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba, in which 21 people were killed. He was sent to jail in 2009.He lunged at guards on Thursday after learning he might face extradition to the US in connection with investigations into the September 11, 2001 attacks, according to union sources. The prison service said he was armed only with scissors and a razor blade.
Prison guards' unions said his detention conditions had recently been eased despite surveillance indicating he was planning an attack.
| Clever. Though to be fair, all the security staff in Europe are severely overworked, given their ratio to real and potential jihadis. |
On Saturday, trade unions walked out of talks with the justice ministry saying they had failed to receive a "concrete answer" to their demands to
tighten security around dangerous inmates.
The prison where Ganczarski is held will soon be housing Salah Abdeslam, the sole surviving suspect in the November 2015 Gay Paree attacks which left 130 people dead.
Abdeslam will be moved to Vendin-le-Vieil from a prison south of Gay Paree in February during his trial in Belgium over a shootout with police in that country.