0:00:07.876,0:00:10.418
At a certain time,[br]a few years before that,

0:00:11.042,0:00:15.209
I was in a gloomy cell,[br]in the detention center at Fresnes.

0:00:15.616,0:00:18.072
And I was pacing, in the cell,

0:00:18.083,0:00:21.709
because they took away our mattresses,[br]then, so you had to stand.

0:00:21.709,0:00:24.792
In a corner of the cell,[br]there are toilets,

0:00:25.334,0:00:28.875
I hear a few bubbles, so I lean over,

0:00:28.876,0:00:31.293
I go over and have a look,[br]and what do I see?

0:00:31.294,0:00:36.292
I see a rat who sticks his head out,[br]takes a breath, and goes back down.

0:00:36.876,0:00:39.835
I'm telling you, I didn't go[br]to the toilet straight away.

0:00:39.836,0:00:44.501
So I said to myself that I was[br]in quite a difficult situation.

0:00:45.042,0:00:47.875
But as I was alone, in complete isolation,

0:00:47.876,0:00:49.918
I was in in the dark, I saw no-one.

0:00:50.501,0:00:54.293
It had been a few days[br]since I had spoken to anyone -

0:00:54.459,0:00:57.126
I said to myself,[br]"I will share my bread with him."

0:00:57.127,0:01:02.334
I put a little piece of bread[br]beside the toilets. I waited.

0:01:02.334,0:01:04.084
The next day, poof, he had gone.

0:01:05.834,0:01:07.917
Two days later, the same thing.

0:01:08.876,0:01:14.460
Finally the rat started[br]to get a little bit bolder

0:01:16.584,0:01:20.751
A few days later, there I was,[br]beside my friend the rat.

0:01:22.167,0:01:25.459
I shared a few little secrets,[br]and told him a bit about my life.

0:01:25.459,0:01:26.542
And he was listening.

0:01:26.876,0:01:30.210
He was nibbling his piece of bread,[br]but he was listening to me.

0:01:30.211,0:01:35.626
I was there. I had some company,[br]I had some support, a sympathetic ear.

0:01:35.741,0:01:37.031
It was great.

0:01:38.250,0:01:40.667
Anyway, I get to the end[br]of my 45 days of solitary,

0:01:41.459,0:01:43.918
and it's time to leave.

0:01:45.042,0:01:47.376
So we are sitting down, side by side,

0:01:48.626,0:01:52.333
we looked at each other,[br]we said our goodbyes,

0:01:52.334,0:01:56.376
and I promise you, I saw[br]a little tear, on both sides,

0:01:58.374,0:01:59.926
and I left solitary confinement.

0:02:00.501,0:02:04.043
I wondered to myself,[br]"How did I end up here?"

0:02:04.876,0:02:08.876
And the story goes that in December 84,

0:02:09.000,0:02:13.501
I am with a friend, a girlfriend,[br]my fiancé at that time,

0:02:14.000,0:02:17.083
and I am attacked by eight skinheads.

0:02:17.250,0:02:21.625
Back then, these were violent people,[br]in fact, they still are, but anyway.

0:02:22.584,0:02:24.335
Unfortunately, I pulled out a gun,

0:02:25.751,0:02:28.876
and I shot, because I thought[br]they were going to hurt her.

0:02:29.751,0:02:32.751
I shot, and one of them died,[br]and one was injured.

0:02:34.959,0:02:38.374
Two days later, I am in a prison van,

0:02:38.375,0:02:42.959
on my way to the largest prison[br]in Europe, called Fleury-Merogis.

0:02:43.834,0:02:47.710
I had never seen a prison, I had[br]never seen a prison van, nor a cage.

0:02:50.334,0:02:53.501
I didn't know that they locked[br]human beings in cages.

0:02:53.501,0:02:55.668
It came as quite a shock.

0:02:57.125,0:03:01.584
I wound up in reception,[br]which is at the center of Fleury-Merogis,

0:03:01.584,0:03:03.210
where new arrivals are processed.

0:03:03.751,0:03:07.335
And that was the the first time[br]I had to strip in front of anyone.

0:03:09.167,0:03:10.209
First humiliation.

0:03:11.501,0:03:14.166
Next, I go to the registry.

0:03:14.167,0:03:18.542
You hand over your things,[br]your identity card, etc.,

0:03:18.935,0:03:20.629
and you're given a number.

0:03:21.501,0:03:25.668
And this number, you remember[br]for the rest of your life.

0:03:26.052,0:03:28.149
138496Q.

0:03:30.501,0:03:32.252
Next, you are left in custody.

0:03:32.876,0:03:36.085
What is prison? It is not[br]only the denial of freedom.

0:03:36.125,0:03:40.417
But it is also misery, it is also[br]lack of hygiene, lack of care,

0:03:40.959,0:03:47.001
overcrowding, and a whole load[br]of things which are really inhuman.

0:03:47.709,0:03:49.293
And most of all, violence.

0:03:50.751,0:03:53.460
You walk in, you have[br]to fight, straight away.

0:03:53.959,0:03:56.501
It is a hard world,[br]and you have to survive.

0:03:57.375,0:04:00.126
So I am in prison, I start my sentence.

0:04:01.292,0:04:04.251
At that time, it was[br]the 80s, it was in 85,

0:04:05.209,0:04:10.001
a fairly widespread illness,[br]is becoming an epidemic.

0:04:12.083,0:04:16.208
So the tests started,[br]tests to see if you had AIDS.

0:04:16.584,0:04:20.875
And I have a test.[br]And I find out that I am HIV positive.

0:04:23.834,0:04:25.222
So, not a good start in life.

0:04:26.125,0:04:29.208
From that point onwards,[br]I have only one thing on my mind,

0:04:29.524,0:04:30.529
and that's to escape.

0:04:30.626,0:04:35.709
Because back then, it was thought you only[br]had three years or five years max.

0:04:37.000,0:04:39.167
I was obsessed with one thing: to escape.

0:04:41.000,0:04:44.792
So I do four years in Fleury-Mérogis,[br]then I am transferred.

0:04:45.709,0:04:49.709
I manage to get[br]a mid-sentence day release,

0:04:50.167,0:04:52.584
because at that time,[br]I had a ten year sentence,

0:04:52.626,0:04:54.544
and they knew that I had been assaulted.

0:04:56.584,0:05:00.667
I have no hope, I am ill,[br]I know that I might die tomorrow,

0:05:01.042,0:05:03.459
and I can't bear prison[br]any longer, the way it is.

0:05:03.918,0:05:06.794
I can't bear the inhuman way[br]they treat people, any longer,

0:05:06.795,0:05:08.274
so I go on the run.

0:05:09.083,0:05:10.917
On the run, there aren't many options.

0:05:10.918,0:05:15.418
To survive on the run, you need money.[br]You can't go to work.

0:05:15.751,0:05:19.043
So I start stealing, and I go back

0:05:19.167,0:05:23.459
to doing hold-ups, and I become a raider.

0:05:24.876,0:05:29.418
I get caught, I get another 2-3 years,

0:05:30.584,0:05:34.085
and in 93 I'm released[br]at the end of my sentence.

0:05:34.951,0:05:37.631
And everything's still the same,[br]no cure for the illness.

0:05:37.751,0:05:39.335
Prison had really broken me.

0:05:39.375,0:05:45.209
I mean it's a system which makes[br]you violent, which changes you.

0:05:47.167,0:05:49.459
I am 28 when I finish my sentence.

0:05:50.959,0:05:56.418
And I relapse. I go back[br]to guns, and to hold-ups.

0:05:57.042,0:06:02.084
I am in a very violent world;

0:06:02.214,0:06:05.871
I get caught in 94.

0:06:07.417,0:06:10.834
And I know that I will go down for years,[br]and that I will die in prison.

0:06:12.209,0:06:18.418
And because I know[br]it's the end for me, I go for broke.

0:06:18.542,0:06:22.376
9 October 1994, the anniversary[br]of the abolition of the death penalty,

0:06:22.377,0:06:24.126
I chose this date to escape.

0:06:24.167,0:06:26.167
I get some weapons smuggled into prison,

0:06:27.334,0:06:29.751
I take some hostages,[br]and I manage to get out.

0:06:30.584,0:06:35.460
I went on a violent rampage.[br]with armed robberies, hold-ups.

0:06:36.459,0:06:39.210
Finally, in 95, I get caught[br]by the serious crime squad,

0:06:39.217,0:06:40.783
and they incarcerate me.

0:06:41.959,0:06:45.126
I end up in solitary confinement.

0:06:46.167,0:06:50.708
because I have become dangerous[br]and a threat to society.

0:06:50.709,0:06:51.751
It's true.

0:06:52.501,0:06:58.252
Five years in solitary confinement,[br]seeing no-one, for all those years.

0:06:58.751,0:07:00.210
Complete isolation.

0:07:01.375,0:07:04.458
To survive in isolation,[br]the only solution,

0:07:04.584,0:07:07.709
as there is nothing else, is to read.

0:07:08.501,0:07:10.127
And I discovered literature.

0:07:10.128,0:07:16.626
I started to read, and I found[br]in the words, a way of traveling

0:07:16.626,0:07:21.210
and of discovering the world,[br]of which I had been deprived.

0:07:22.542,0:07:25.751
The strength of the words[br]was something powerful,

0:07:25.751,0:07:31.710
which could take me somewhere,[br]to escape, actually.

0:07:35.250,0:07:39.459
After these years of isolation,

0:07:39.594,0:07:42.453
in 2000, 1995-2000,

0:07:42.918,0:07:46.419
I am finally released and I'm transferred[br]to La Santé detention center.

0:07:47.083,0:07:48.750
And when I am there I meet people,

0:07:49.375,0:07:52.584
I touch them, to see[br]if they are really human.

0:07:54.501,0:07:57.668
I start living again,[br]and I enroll on some courses.

0:07:58.125,0:08:01.667
Teachers come to the prison.[br]There is a university, Paris VII.

0:08:02.042,0:08:05.251
There is a section called[br]the Section for Detainee Students,

0:08:05.562,0:08:07.223
which is for prisoners.

0:08:07.876,0:08:09.752
And there, I come across a teacher,

0:08:09.792,0:08:12.668
a philosophy teacher[br]called François Chouquet.

0:08:14.167,0:08:19.250
We talk, and he tells me that words

0:08:19.375,0:08:23.334
are more powerful than weapons.

0:08:25.042,0:08:26.876
Obviously I laughed, in the beginning.

0:08:27.605,0:08:30.206
(Laughter)

0:08:30.209,0:08:31.710
He is very nice, but well...

0:08:35.000,0:08:41.333
But I continue studying,[br]I started to write a little,

0:08:42.125,0:08:45.917
and he made me read[br]Tolstoy, Céline, Camus,

0:08:47.792,0:08:51.209
"In Remembrance of things past,"[br]as if that was all I had to do;

0:08:51.459,0:08:55.377
but he gave me something,[br]it was really a treasure.

0:08:56.292,0:09:00.334
Finally, I started to write,[br]and I showed him my first script.

0:09:01.834,0:09:03.418
He encouraged me.

0:09:03.459,0:09:05.709
At last, I belonged somewhere in society,

0:09:05.710,0:09:08.876
I existed for someone,[br]someone read my work.

0:09:09.417,0:09:10.417
I belonged.

0:09:11.000,0:09:14.667
In 2002, I am finally sentenced,[br]and I get 30 years.

0:09:17.594,0:09:18.980
30 years is a long time.

0:09:18.981,0:09:20.333
(Laughter)

0:09:20.334,0:09:24.001
Enough to read three libraries,[br]François Mitterand.

0:09:25.330,0:09:28.438
I get 30 years, 30 years.

0:09:29.042,0:09:31.626
To tell you the truth:[br]when I got the sentence,

0:09:31.626,0:09:34.377
I was transferred straight away[br]to a high security prison,

0:09:34.918,0:09:40.085
and I tried to escape once more.

0:09:40.712,0:09:41.859
(Laughter)

0:09:41.876,0:09:45.918
I got two more years,[br]but it was a gamble.

0:09:46.417,0:09:49.209
And because I couldn't bear[br]to be in this prison,

0:09:49.334,0:09:54.252
I started riots, I set fire[br]to Clairvaux, it was terrible.

0:09:59.501,0:10:02.127
It was hard to accept[br]this denial of freedom.

0:10:02.128,0:10:05.167
By then, I had already done[br]about 20 years in prison.

0:10:05.959,0:10:09.959
Finally, in 2006, I said to myself

0:10:11.209,0:10:14.334
that it was my own harmful thinking[br]from which I had to escape.

0:10:17.209,0:10:20.043
I had to become someone else,[br]I had had enough of it.

0:10:20.501,0:10:26.460
In 2006, I end up in Poissy prison.

0:10:27.250,0:10:30.417
And there, I create the first prison blog

0:10:31.542,0:10:34.667
of a detainee, in the Nouvel Observateur.

0:10:36.959,0:10:37.958
The first.

0:10:37.959,0:10:41.585
Today, everyone has the Internet,[br]but it was me who created the first.

0:10:41.751,0:10:46.126
In my column I described prison life,[br]everything which I stood for,

0:10:46.751,0:10:49.377
how to fight against a system,[br]which is destroying us.

0:10:51.626,0:10:54.335
and also the absurdity of this system.

0:10:54.959,0:10:58.209
And other articles:[br]the disabled in prison, etc.

0:10:59.542,0:11:03.917
Obviously, the prison authorities were[br]against it since it was against the rules.

0:11:03.959,0:11:06.879
Any communication was forbidden,[br]unless it was censored first.

0:11:06.880,0:11:08.961
To this day, they don't know how I did it.

0:11:08.962,0:11:13.751
For four years, I got my articles on[br]the Internet, without them knowing.

0:11:15.501,0:11:20.460
I also met Fabien Marceau, at a concert.

0:11:21.042,0:11:22.417
He comes with his crutch.

0:11:22.418,0:11:24.959
Fabien Marceau, sorry,[br]I mean Grand Corp Malade.

0:11:25.792,0:11:31.750
I like the fact that because of his words,[br]because of his Slam a disabled person,

0:11:31.751,0:11:35.793
could stand up and practice his art.

0:11:36.542,0:11:40.667
So you could say that the power[br]of his words created this miracle.

0:11:41.209,0:11:43.626
No need to go to Lourdes,[br]he did it with Slam,

0:11:43.627,0:11:46.668
and he managed to make a career of it.

0:11:46.876,0:11:49.249
We became mates, very friendly.

0:11:49.250,0:11:52.333
For me too, writing enabled me,[br]thanks to my blog,

0:11:52.442,0:11:54.209
to publish my first book.

0:11:54.626,0:11:57.585
I was no longer dangerous, I was a writer.

0:11:58.083,0:12:00.458
and a freelance one,[br]for the Nouvel Observateur.

0:12:00.501,0:12:03.918
The prison authorities,[br]looked at me differently.

0:12:04.334,0:12:06.709
"Something strange is happening there."

0:12:06.959,0:12:09.293
"He must be planning another escape."

0:12:09.334,0:12:10.583
(Laughter)

0:12:10.584,0:12:12.293
I promise you it's true.

0:12:13.501,0:12:18.751
I can tell you that they took[br]my computer, they confiscated it,

0:12:18.792,0:12:25.376
passed it to CLIS,[br]to see if I had access, etc.

0:12:26.459,0:12:29.210
The prison governor came[br]to ask me, "Is it really you?"

0:12:29.211,0:12:32.710
"No, it's a lunatic who pretends[br]to be me, who writes this stuff.

0:12:32.916,0:12:33.736
I promise you."

0:12:33.753,0:12:35.031
(Laughter)

0:12:35.032,0:12:36.550
It happened.

0:12:36.602,0:12:37.908
(Laughter)

0:12:39.667,0:12:47.001
It was through one of my books[br]that I met a young student.

0:12:47.167,0:12:50.793
We fell in love; with writing,[br]anything is possible.

0:12:50.959,0:12:54.001
We fell in love,[br]and after a few months, we decided,

0:12:54.125,0:12:55.751
to have a "visiting-hours" baby.

0:12:56.959,0:12:58.835
Because that's also[br]part of being human.

0:12:59.083,0:13:02.625
So we made a baby during visiting hours.

0:13:02.626,0:13:07.418
And in March 2008,[br]my little girl was born.

0:13:08.324,0:13:10.256
(Applause)

0:13:14.417,0:13:16.541
Two days after the birth,

0:13:16.542,0:13:19.541
- because I didn't go[br]straight away, I couldn't -

0:13:19.542,0:13:21.418
I was in the maternity ward.

0:13:21.464,0:13:22.931
A criminal like me.

0:13:23.334,0:13:27.252
I end up in the maternity ward,[br]and I go to see my baby.

0:13:27.292,0:13:28.918
They took off my handcuffs.

0:13:29.167,0:13:32.001
There was a window,[br]and I had a good look, but...

0:13:32.002,0:13:33.825
(Laughter)

0:13:34.250,0:13:36.375
Sometimes it's stronger[br]than us, but anyway.

0:13:37.459,0:13:41.418
I took my daughter in my arms

0:13:49.042,0:13:50.996
(Applause)

0:14:02.209,0:14:03.543
We called her Tilelli.

0:14:03.792,0:14:06.167
Tilelli means freedom in Kabyle,

0:14:07.167,0:14:11.376
as it was her who managed[br]to get me out of prison, after 20 years.

0:14:12.876,0:14:18.585
All of that is to tell you,[br]that I filed a case for parole.

0:14:19.918,0:14:23.335
It took 2-3 years, a rock-solid case,

0:14:23.876,0:14:26.168
because I was a father,[br]I had responsibilities,

0:14:27.000,0:14:29.292
and at last the sentencing judge,

0:14:29.667,0:14:32.042
seeing that I had already[br]done 25 years in prison,

0:14:32.292,0:14:34.084
he said, "He must be released,

0:14:34.085,0:14:36.082
because he is a journalist, and a father,

0:14:36.083,0:14:37.997
he has become this, he has become that."

0:14:39.167,0:14:43.918
And I managed to get my university[br]qualification, from Paris VII.

0:14:43.918,0:14:45.747
(Applause)

0:14:50.667,0:14:52.543
All that was to tell you that today,

0:14:53.959,0:14:56.793
they think that serial offenders[br]should be marginalized

0:14:58.375,0:15:02.042
that they must take a hard line,[br]and that they shouldn't be let out.

0:15:03.834,0:15:05.460
But I have proved the opposite.

0:15:06.042,0:15:08.501
Even with my background, it's possible.

0:15:08.501,0:15:10.252
A return to real life is possible.

0:15:11.918,0:15:15.836
And it is possible,[br]thanks to people and goodwill.

0:15:17.501,0:15:21.168
And finally, in all dictatorships

0:15:21.751,0:15:24.126
the first thing [br]which goes away is culture.

0:15:24.501,0:15:25.543
It's destroyed.

0:15:26.584,0:15:31.126
Ignorance should even be seen[br]as a crime against humanity.

0:15:32.209,0:15:34.793
It is through culture,[br]that I managed to pull through,

0:15:34.794,0:15:37.585
through reading; and with teachers.

0:15:38.876,0:15:40.876
We must encourage this sort of thing.

0:15:41.000,0:15:43.626
I think back to Chouquet's quote,

0:15:44.542,0:15:48.625
who said that the pen[br]was mightier than the sword.

0:15:49.375,0:15:52.167
It is because of the pen[br]that my greatest escape succeeded.

0:15:52.876,0:15:53.833
Thank you.

0:15:53.834,0:15:55.527
(Applause)