Corruption in Fresnes: Arnaud Mimran acquitted on appeal, prison director's sentence reduced

The Paris Court of Appeal on Wednesday acquitted Arnaud Mimran in a corruption case at Fresnes prison (Val-de-Marne), where the sulphurous businessman was incarcerated.

Arnaud Mimran was sentenced at first instance to two years in prison by the Criminal Court of Créteil in January. He had been tried for organizing a corruption network in the prison between January 2016 and March 2018, which allowed him to benefit from a favourable detention regime for payment. His lawyer did not wish to comment immediately.

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Khalid El Khal, then head of division of Fresnes prison, was sentenced at first instance to four years' imprisonment for passive corruption and criminal association. He was suspected of having played a role in the transfer of Mimran to the prison of Le Havre, in addition to other benefits.

The Court of Appeal on Wednesday sentenced him to five years in prison, two of which were suspended, after the facts were reclassified only as passive corruption as a person holding public authority.

"A much more coherent decision than the first"

"This is a much more coherent decision than the first, a page is turning for Khalid El Khal," responded his lawyers, Philippe Ohayon, Paul Aprile and Vera Goguidze.

Another instigator of the corruption network at Fresnes prison, Fabrice Touil, who was sentenced to four years' imprisonment at first instance, will be summoned to appear at a later hearing.

Former "golden-boy", Arnaud Mimran has accumulated legal setbacks since his conviction in 2016 in a carbon tax fraud. Last December, he was sentenced on appeal to thirteen years in prison by the Val-de-Marne Assize Court for the kidnapping of a Swiss financier for extortion.

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He was also indicted and imprisoned in April 2021 in the investigation into the 2011 murder of his ex-father-in-law, billionaire Claude Dray, and in the 2010 murder of another figure in the carbon tax case, Samy Souied. He is also suspected of having ordered a murder in April 2014, a case for which he is indicted for "murder in an organized gang".