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Centre Penitentiaire Sud-Francilien prison in Reau, where notorious gangster Redoine Faid broke out of on July 1. Photo: AFP

France asks Google to remove photos of ‘security buildings’ after helicopter jailbreak

Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet said it is ‘not normal’ for there to be photos of French prisons on the internet

France
France has asked Google to remove photos of prisons from the internet, including one from which a notorious criminal known as “the jailbreak king” escaped by helicopter this year.

Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet said she had written to the internet search engine to request the removal of sensitive photos, but no action had been taken.

“It’s not normal that photos of security buildings such as our prisons are out there on the internet,” Belloubet said in an interview on RTL radio station. “I’ve written to Google asking for action to remove [photos of] these prison sites but nothing has happened so far. I may have to ask to meet the people I wrote to.”

French Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet speaking to journalists during a visit to Bastia Court on October 5, 2018. Photo: AFP

A Google spokesman said applications such as Google Maps and Google Earth drew on images from external sources.

“We have given our suppliers a list of sensitive locations and asked them to take the necessary steps as soon as possible to conform with the law,” said the spokesman, adding that the list also included nuclear plants and army bases.

The minister was discussing the case of Redoine Faid, whose escape in July from the open courtyard of a jail complex south of Paris drew attention to the absence of anti-helicopter nets and the presence on the web of clear aerial photos of the site.

Faid was recaptured last week, three months after accomplices landed a hijacked helicopter in the yard of Reau prison, hacked their way into an adjacent visitor room with angle grinders to free him, and flew back out.

In a previous escape, Faid, a serial robber imprisoned for a botched cash-transport truck robbery in which a policewoman died, took four wardens hostage and used dynamite to blast his way out of another prison.

Interpol portraits of Redoine Faid. Photo: AP

Belloubet said Faid, who has declared himself to be on a hunger strike, was now in solitary confinement and banned from receiving visits at his new prison in northern France, of which photos are also readily accessible on the web.

Faid became a notorious semi-celebrity in France after writing a book about his colourful life, describing how he was born into crime in high-rise housing estates of the kind that sprang up around Paris in the 1960s and 1970s.

He has said his life of crime was inspired by blockbuster films such as Scarface and Reservoir Dogs.

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