French 'getaway king' goes on trial over daring jailbreak

Rédouine Faïd, a 51-year-old convicted burglar who escaped prison in 2018 aboard a hijacked helicopter went on trial in Paris on Tuesday, alongside eleven suspected accomplices. He faces life in prison over his brazen getaway.

The Alouette II helicopter was abandoned in Gonesse, north of Paris, after Rédoine Faïd escaped from the Réau detention center on July 1, 2018. Geoffroy van der Hasselt/AFP

Faïd was serving time for burglary when accomplices hijacked a helicopter and landed it in the courtyard of Réau prison, southeast of Paris, on the morning of 1 July, 2018.

While one of them held a gun to the pilot's head, two others stepped out of the helicopter launching smoke grenades.

One of them then kept watch, armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, while another – wearing a fake police armband – used a circular power saw to cut open the gate to the prison cell corridor where Faïd and his brother Brahim were being held.

Witnesses later said that Faïd "very calmly" walked out of his cell to the waiting helicopter, which took off without any shots being fired. The entire operation took 10 minutes. Police later found the helicopter abandoned.

He was re-captured three months later, hiding in the home of friend of a relative.

Known as the "getaway king" Faïd broke out of jail once before in 2013, taking wardens hostage and blowing up the prison gate.

He faces life imprisonment for the repeat offence. 

Nicknamed the "getaway king", Rédouine Faïd, 51, was serving time for burglary when accomplices hijacked a helicopter and landed it in the courtyard of Réau prison, southeast of Paris, on the morning of July 1, 2018. Interpol

History of violence

Faïd has a history of robberies involving armoured vehicles and hostage-taking and at the time of the jailbreak was already serving a 25-year sentence for a botched heist in which a policewoman got killed.

Eleven suspected accomplices are on trial alongside Faïd, including five members of his family.

They are charged with helping him in the escape and during the subsequent three months it took police to catch him.

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Access to the court room was under special protection on Tuesday and mobile phone signals scrambled, officials said. The trial is expected to last seven weeks.

Faïd made no statements to investigators in the run-up to the trial, except to say he was "sorry" that his accomplices had been caught up in the trial.

His older brother Rachid explained why he had decided to participate: "The reason is the accumulation of jail terms. It's a place of death".

Réau prison has since installed security lines over the courtyard to prevent any more jailbreaks by air.

(with newswires)