“We have decided, with the KohLantess team, to remove the video without delay”. It is not the controversy that the images have triggered which leads to such a decision according to the production. But rather the rupture of “the confidence that we have granted to the penitentiary center of Fresnes as well as to the ministry of justice”, explains the production, this Monday evening, in a press release published on the social network Instagram.
“We learned that one of the detainees taking part in a trial had a long criminal record. However, we have repeatedly stipulated our conditions, namely: no penalty resulting from an attack on the physical and / or moral integrity of a person, ”writes the KohLantess team.
Indeed, according to L’Opinion, one of the detainees who participated in the program “was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment for rape by the Val-de-Marne Assize Court in February 2021”. His criminal file, says the daily on its website, also mentions “many cases of theft including violence with a weapon, several judgments for drug trafficking. And an escape in 2018 when the condemned man was placed under an electronic bracelet. Not to mention various incidents in detention”.
They demand that a donation be donated to an association of aid to victims
This 31-year-old detainee would have participated in the tug-of-war test, the daily specifies. Called to react, the chancellery indicated that “the investigation will give the elements”, without confirming or denying the information from the daily. “It was the sine qua non for making the video. If at a single moment we had known of the profile of the inmate selected by the prison administration, the video would never have been shot and even less broadcast. (…) This type of profile goes of course against the values that we advocate”, continue the organizers who demand “that the promise of donation made by the penitentiary center of Fresnes be entirely donated to an association of assistance to victims. “.
The organization within the prison of Fresnes of events inspired by the television game “Koh-Lanta” for the benefit of charities was a “controversial act”, admitted Monday on CNews the organizer while ensuring that “the goal was not to shock”.
Baptized “Kohlanness”, this event, organized on July 27, bringing together detainees, guards and young people from Fresnes (Val-de-Marne), provoked the indignation of several right and far right personalities after the broadcast of a video Friday on social networks, in particular on YouTube, showing a go-kart race in the prison yard.
Justice Minister Éric Dupond-Moretti announced on Twitter on Saturday that he had “ordered an administrative investigation” and denounced “shocking images”. “The fight against recidivism goes through reintegration, but certainly not through karting! “, was offended the minister.
“Everything was in order. We did not expect that” from the Ministry of Justice, explained Enzo Angelo Santo, producer of “Kohlanness” assuring that the ministry had validated this event. “The goal was to show, for a moment, a moment of humanity between prisoners, guards and young people from the neighborhood,” he added. “We should not reduce our approach to karting”, he insisted, specifying that “all the prisoners” who participated in the program were “people able to reintegrate” and “in school”. .
A total of ten detainees took part in “Kohlanness” and only two took part in the karting event. According to BFMTV, a second detainee, enrolled in a reintegration program, who was convicted of murder, was able to participate in the game. On July 1, the Fresnes remand center had 1,918 detainees for 1,336 places.