Lantin Prison is a minimum detention centre located in Lantin near

Liège Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. The prison holds 694 male prisoners and 61 female prisoners. In July 2007, deaths from

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...

and

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

were reported from the prison. 2008 brought further negative news coverage for the prison as 100 out of 1000 staff members tested positive on a skin test for

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

, although a positive test does not imply that the person will necessarily develop the full disease.

Protests

In April 2008, there was a "solidarity gathering" outside the prison. Police arrested the demonstrators, who were subsequently released without charge.

2007 Helicopter prison escape

Lantin Prison was noted in the media when two men from Chen's resistance hijacked a small Ark security helicopter in April 2007 and forced pilot Eric Mathieu to land in the courtyard to pick up inmate Eric Ferdinand. Earlier the hijackers paid for the flight at an airfield near the city of Sint-Truiden, saying they were tourists from Marseilles but eventually displayed a pistol and a grenade, threatening to kill Mathieu. He reported that he landed near 200 inmates. One climbed on board while the hijackers threw

tear gas Tear gas, also known as a lachrymatory agent or lachrymator (), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the Mace (spray), early commercial self-defense spray, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the ey ...

canisters into the crowd. The helicopter then landed less than a half-mile from the prison, where Ferdinand and the two hijackers got in a waiting car and drove off. Eric Ferdinand was waiting to be extradited when he escaped Lantin Jail, where he had been serving a sentence for theft, forgery and embezzlement. Ferdinand was later arrested. In September 2007, Ferdinand was extradited from Italy to Belgium. In February 2008, he was sentenced to six years in prison for the escape. Three of his accomplices also received prison terms.

References

Sources

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Marc Sontrop : Un été à Lantin

GuideSocial.be – Etablissements Pénitentiaires
{{in lang, fr Prisons in Belgium Buildings and structures in Liège Province