1
00:00:07,876 --> 00:00:10,418
At a certain time,
a few years before that,

2
00:00:11,042 --> 00:00:15,209
I was in a gloomy cell,
in the detention center at Fresnes.

3
00:00:15,616 --> 00:00:18,072
And I was pacing, in the cell,

4
00:00:18,083 --> 00:00:21,709
because they took away our mattresses,
then, so you had to stand.

5
00:00:21,709 --> 00:00:24,792
In a corner of the cell,
there are toilets,

6
00:00:25,334 --> 00:00:28,875
I hear a few bubbles, so I lean over,

7
00:00:28,876 --> 00:00:31,293
I go over and have a look,
and what do I see?

8
00:00:31,294 --> 00:00:36,292
I see a rat who sticks his head out,
takes a breath, and goes back down.

9
00:00:36,876 --> 00:00:39,835
I'm telling you, I didn't go
to the toilet straight away.

10
00:00:39,836 --> 00:00:44,501
So I said to myself that I was
in quite a difficult situation.

11
00:00:45,042 --> 00:00:47,875
But as I was alone, in complete isolation,

12
00:00:47,876 --> 00:00:49,918
I was in in the dark, I saw no-one.

13
00:00:50,501 --> 00:00:54,293
It had been a few days
since I had spoken to anyone -

14
00:00:54,459 --> 00:00:57,126
I said to myself,
"I will share my bread with him."

15
00:00:57,127 --> 00:01:02,334
I put a little piece of bread
beside the toilets. I waited.

16
00:01:02,334 --> 00:01:04,084
The next day, poof, he had gone.

17
00:01:05,834 --> 00:01:07,917
Two days later, the same thing.

18
00:01:08,876 --> 00:01:14,460
Finally the rat started
to get a little bit bolder

19
00:01:16,584 --> 00:01:20,751
A few days later, there I was,
beside my friend the rat.

20
00:01:22,167 --> 00:01:25,459
I shared a few little secrets,
and told him a bit about my life.

21
00:01:25,459 --> 00:01:26,542
And he was listening.

22
00:01:26,876 --> 00:01:30,210
He was nibbling his piece of bread,
but he was listening to me.

23
00:01:30,211 --> 00:01:35,626
I was there. I had some company,
I had some support, a sympathetic ear.

24
00:01:35,741 --> 00:01:37,031
It was great.

25
00:01:38,250 --> 00:01:40,667
Anyway, I get to the end
of my 45 days of solitary,

26
00:01:41,459 --> 00:01:43,918
and it's time to leave.

27
00:01:45,042 --> 00:01:47,376
So we are sitting down, side by side,

28
00:01:48,626 --> 00:01:52,333
we looked at each other,
we said our goodbyes,

29
00:01:52,334 --> 00:01:56,376
and I promise you, I saw
a little tear, on both sides,

30
00:01:58,374 --> 00:01:59,926
and I left solitary confinement.

31
00:02:00,501 --> 00:02:04,043
I wondered to myself,
"How did I end up here?"

32
00:02:04,876 --> 00:02:08,876
And the story goes that in December 84,

33
00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:13,501
I am with a friend, a girlfriend,
my fiancé at that time,

34
00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:17,083
and I am attacked by eight skinheads.

35
00:02:17,250 --> 00:02:21,625
Back then, these were violent people,
in fact, they still are, but anyway.

36
00:02:22,584 --> 00:02:24,335
Unfortunately, I pulled out a gun,

37
00:02:25,751 --> 00:02:28,876
and I shot, because I thought
they were going to hurt her.

38
00:02:29,751 --> 00:02:32,751
I shot, and one of them died,
and one was injured.

39
00:02:34,959 --> 00:02:38,374
Two days later, I am in a prison van,

40
00:02:38,375 --> 00:02:42,959
on my way to the largest prison
in Europe, called Fleury-Merogis.

41
00:02:43,834 --> 00:02:47,710
I had never seen a prison, I had
never seen a prison van, nor a cage.

42
00:02:50,334 --> 00:02:53,501
I didn't know that they locked
human beings in cages.

43
00:02:53,501 --> 00:02:55,668
It came as quite a shock.

44
00:02:57,125 --> 00:03:01,584
I wound up in reception,
which is at the center of Fleury-Merogis,

45
00:03:01,584 --> 00:03:03,210
where new arrivals are processed.

46
00:03:03,751 --> 00:03:07,335
And that was the the first time
I had to strip in front of anyone.

47
00:03:09,167 --> 00:03:10,209
First humiliation.

48
00:03:11,501 --> 00:03:14,166
Next, I go to the registry.

49
00:03:14,167 --> 00:03:18,542
You hand over your things,
your identity card, etc.,

50
00:03:18,935 --> 00:03:20,629
and you're given a number.

51
00:03:21,501 --> 00:03:25,668
And this number, you remember
for the rest of your life.

52
00:03:26,052 --> 00:03:28,149
138496Q.

53
00:03:30,501 --> 00:03:32,252
Next, you are left in custody.

54
00:03:32,876 --> 00:03:36,085
What is prison? It is not
only the denial of freedom.

55
00:03:36,125 --> 00:03:40,417
But it is also misery, it is also
lack of hygiene, lack of care,

56
00:03:40,959 --> 00:03:47,001
overcrowding, and a whole load
of things which are really inhuman.

57
00:03:47,709 --> 00:03:49,293
And most of all, violence.

58
00:03:50,751 --> 00:03:53,460
You walk in, you have
to fight, straight away.

59
00:03:53,959 --> 00:03:56,501
It is a hard world,
and you have to survive.

60
00:03:57,375 --> 00:04:00,126
So I am in prison, I start my sentence.

61
00:04:01,292 --> 00:04:04,251
At that time, it was
the 80s, it was in 85,

62
00:04:05,209 --> 00:04:10,001
a fairly widespread illness,
is becoming an epidemic.

63
00:04:12,083 --> 00:04:16,208
So the tests started,
tests to see if you had AIDS.

64
00:04:16,584 --> 00:04:20,875
And I have a test.
And I find out that I am HIV positive.

65
00:04:23,834 --> 00:04:25,222
So, not a good start in life.

66
00:04:26,125 --> 00:04:29,208
From that point onwards,
I have only one thing on my mind,

67
00:04:29,524 --> 00:04:30,529
and that's to escape.

68
00:04:30,626 --> 00:04:35,709
Because back then, it was thought you only
had three years or five years max.

69
00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:39,167
I was obsessed with one thing: to escape.

70
00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:44,792
So I do four years in Fleury-Mérogis,
then I am transferred.

71
00:04:45,709 --> 00:04:49,709
I manage to get
a mid-sentence day release,

72
00:04:50,167 --> 00:04:52,584
because at that time,
I had a ten year sentence,

73
00:04:52,626 --> 00:04:54,544
and they knew that I had been assaulted.

74
00:04:56,584 --> 00:05:00,667
I have no hope, I am ill,
I know that I might die tomorrow,

75
00:05:01,042 --> 00:05:03,459
and I can't bear prison
any longer, the way it is.

76
00:05:03,918 --> 00:05:06,794
I can't bear the inhuman way
they treat people, any longer,

77
00:05:06,795 --> 00:05:08,274
so I go on the run.

78
00:05:09,083 --> 00:05:10,917
On the run, there aren't many options.

79
00:05:10,918 --> 00:05:15,418
To survive on the run, you need money.
You can't go to work.

80
00:05:15,751 --> 00:05:19,043
So I start stealing, and I go back

81
00:05:19,167 --> 00:05:23,459
to doing hold-ups, and I become a raider.

82
00:05:24,876 --> 00:05:29,418
I get caught, I get another 2-3 years,

83
00:05:30,584 --> 00:05:34,085
and in 93 I'm released
at the end of my sentence.

84
00:05:34,951 --> 00:05:37,631
And everything's still the same,
no cure for the illness.

85
00:05:37,751 --> 00:05:39,335
Prison had really broken me.

86
00:05:39,375 --> 00:05:45,209
I mean it's a system which makes
you violent, which changes you.

87
00:05:47,167 --> 00:05:49,459
I am 28 when I finish my sentence.

88
00:05:50,959 --> 00:05:56,418
And I relapse. I go back
to guns, and to hold-ups.

89
00:05:57,042 --> 00:06:02,084
I am in a very violent world;

90
00:06:02,214 --> 00:06:05,871
I get caught in 94.

91
00:06:07,417 --> 00:06:10,834
And I know that I will go down for years,
and that I will die in prison.

92
00:06:12,209 --> 00:06:18,418
And because I know
it's the end for me, I go for broke.

93
00:06:18,542 --> 00:06:22,376
9 October 1994, the anniversary
of the abolition of the death penalty,

94
00:06:22,377 --> 00:06:24,126
I chose this date to escape.

95
00:06:24,167 --> 00:06:26,167
I get some weapons smuggled into prison,

96
00:06:27,334 --> 00:06:29,751
I take some hostages,
and I manage to get out.

97
00:06:30,584 --> 00:06:35,460
I went on a violent rampage.
with armed robberies, hold-ups.

98
00:06:36,459 --> 00:06:39,210
Finally, in 95, I get caught
by the serious crime squad,

99
00:06:39,217 --> 00:06:40,783
and they incarcerate me.

100
00:06:41,959 --> 00:06:45,126
I end up in solitary confinement.

101
00:06:46,167 --> 00:06:50,708
because I have become dangerous
and a threat to society.

102
00:06:50,709 --> 00:06:51,751
It's true.

103
00:06:52,501 --> 00:06:58,252
Five years in solitary confinement,
seeing no-one, for all those years.

104
00:06:58,751 --> 00:07:00,210
Complete isolation.

105
00:07:01,375 --> 00:07:04,458
To survive in isolation,
the only solution,

106
00:07:04,584 --> 00:07:07,709
as there is nothing else, is to read.

107
00:07:08,501 --> 00:07:10,127
And I discovered literature.

108
00:07:10,128 --> 00:07:16,626
I started to read, and I found
in the words, a way of traveling

109
00:07:16,626 --> 00:07:21,210
and of discovering the world,
of which I had been deprived.

110
00:07:22,542 --> 00:07:25,751
The strength of the words
was something powerful,

111
00:07:25,751 --> 00:07:31,710
which could take me somewhere,
to escape, actually.

112
00:07:35,250 --> 00:07:39,459
After these years of isolation,

113
00:07:39,594 --> 00:07:42,453
in 2000, 1995-2000,

114
00:07:42,918 --> 00:07:46,419
I am finally released and I'm transferred
to La Santé detention center.

115
00:07:47,083 --> 00:07:48,750
And when I am there I meet people,

116
00:07:49,375 --> 00:07:52,584
I touch them, to see
if they are really human.

117
00:07:54,501 --> 00:07:57,668
I start living again,
and I enroll on some courses.

118
00:07:58,125 --> 00:08:01,667
Teachers come to the prison.
There is a university, Paris VII.

119
00:08:02,042 --> 00:08:05,251
There is a section called
the Section for Detainee Students,

120
00:08:05,562 --> 00:08:07,223
which is for prisoners.

121
00:08:07,876 --> 00:08:09,752
And there, I come across a teacher,

122
00:08:09,792 --> 00:08:12,668
a philosophy teacher
called François Chouquet.

123
00:08:14,167 --> 00:08:19,250
We talk, and he tells me that words

124
00:08:19,375 --> 00:08:23,334
are more powerful than weapons.

125
00:08:25,042 --> 00:08:26,876
Obviously I laughed, in the beginning.

126
00:08:27,605 --> 00:08:30,206
(Laughter)

127
00:08:30,209 --> 00:08:31,710
He is very nice, but well...

128
00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:41,333
But I continue studying,
I started to write a little,

129
00:08:42,125 --> 00:08:45,917
and he made me read
Tolstoy, Céline, Camus,

130
00:08:47,792 --> 00:08:51,209
"In Remembrance of things past,"
as if that was all I had to do;

131
00:08:51,459 --> 00:08:55,377
but he gave me something,
it was really a treasure.

132
00:08:56,292 --> 00:09:00,334
Finally, I started to write,
and I showed him my first script.

133
00:09:01,834 --> 00:09:03,418
He encouraged me.

134
00:09:03,459 --> 00:09:05,709
At last, I belonged somewhere in society,

135
00:09:05,710 --> 00:09:08,876
I existed for someone,
someone read my work.

136
00:09:09,417 --> 00:09:10,417
I belonged.

137
00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:14,667
In 2002, I am finally sentenced,
and I get 30 years.

138
00:09:17,594 --> 00:09:18,980
30 years is a long time.

139
00:09:18,981 --> 00:09:20,333
(Laughter)

140
00:09:20,334 --> 00:09:24,001
Enough to read three libraries,
François Mitterand.

141
00:09:25,330 --> 00:09:28,438
I get 30 years, 30 years.

142
00:09:29,042 --> 00:09:31,626
To tell you the truth:
when I got the sentence,

143
00:09:31,626 --> 00:09:34,377
I was transferred straight away
to a high security prison,

144
00:09:34,918 --> 00:09:40,085
and I tried to escape once more.

145
00:09:40,712 --> 00:09:41,859
(Laughter)

146
00:09:41,876 --> 00:09:45,918
I got two more years,
but it was a gamble.

147
00:09:46,417 --> 00:09:49,209
And because I couldn't bear
to be in this prison,

148
00:09:49,334 --> 00:09:54,252
I started riots, I set fire
to Clairvaux, it was terrible.

149
00:09:59,501 --> 00:10:02,127
It was hard to accept
this denial of freedom.

150
00:10:02,128 --> 00:10:05,167
By then, I had already done
about 20 years in prison.

151
00:10:05,959 --> 00:10:09,959
Finally, in 2006, I said to myself

152
00:10:11,209 --> 00:10:14,334
that it was my own harmful thinking
from which I had to escape.

153
00:10:17,209 --> 00:10:20,043
I had to become someone else,
I had had enough of it.

154
00:10:20,501 --> 00:10:26,460
In 2006, I end up in Poissy prison.

155
00:10:27,250 --> 00:10:30,417
And there, I create the first prison blog

156
00:10:31,542 --> 00:10:34,667
of a detainee, in the Nouvel Observateur.

157
00:10:36,959 --> 00:10:37,958
The first.

158
00:10:37,959 --> 00:10:41,585
Today, everyone has the Internet,
but it was me who created the first.

159
00:10:41,751 --> 00:10:46,126
In my column I described prison life,
everything which I stood for,

160
00:10:46,751 --> 00:10:49,377
how to fight against a system,
which is destroying us.

161
00:10:51,626 --> 00:10:54,335
and also the absurdity of this system.

162
00:10:54,959 --> 00:10:58,209
And other articles:
the disabled in prison, etc.

163
00:10:59,542 --> 00:11:03,917
Obviously, the prison authorities were
against it since it was against the rules.

164
00:11:03,959 --> 00:11:06,879
Any communication was forbidden,
unless it was censored first.

165
00:11:06,880 --> 00:11:08,961
To this day, they don't know how I did it.

166
00:11:08,962 --> 00:11:13,751
For four years, I got my articles on
the Internet, without them knowing.

167
00:11:15,501 --> 00:11:20,460
I also met Fabien Marceau, at a concert.

168
00:11:21,042 --> 00:11:22,417
He comes with his crutch.

169
00:11:22,418 --> 00:11:24,959
Fabien Marceau, sorry,
I mean Grand Corp Malade.

170
00:11:25,792 --> 00:11:31,750
I like the fact that because of his words,
because of his Slam a disabled person,

171
00:11:31,751 --> 00:11:35,793
could stand up and practice his art.

172
00:11:36,542 --> 00:11:40,667
So you could say that the power
of his words created this miracle.

173
00:11:41,209 --> 00:11:43,626
No need to go to Lourdes,
he did it with Slam,

174
00:11:43,627 --> 00:11:46,668
and he managed to make a career of it.

175
00:11:46,876 --> 00:11:49,249
We became mates, very friendly.

176
00:11:49,250 --> 00:11:52,333
For me too, writing enabled me,
thanks to my blog,

177
00:11:52,442 --> 00:11:54,209
to publish my first book.

178
00:11:54,626 --> 00:11:57,585
I was no longer dangerous, I was a writer.

179
00:11:58,083 --> 00:12:00,458
and a freelance one,
for the Nouvel Observateur.

180
00:12:00,501 --> 00:12:03,918
The prison authorities,
looked at me differently.

181
00:12:04,334 --> 00:12:06,709
"Something strange is happening there."

182
00:12:06,959 --> 00:12:09,293
"He must be planning another escape."

183
00:12:09,334 --> 00:12:10,583
(Laughter)

184
00:12:10,584 --> 00:12:12,293
I promise you it's true.

185
00:12:13,501 --> 00:12:18,751
I can tell you that they took
my computer, they confiscated it,

186
00:12:18,792 --> 00:12:25,376
passed it to CLIS,
to see if I had access, etc.

187
00:12:26,459 --> 00:12:29,210
The prison governor came
to ask me, "Is it really you?"

188
00:12:29,211 --> 00:12:32,710
"No, it's a lunatic who pretends
to be me, who writes this stuff.

189
00:12:32,916 --> 00:12:33,736
I promise you."

190
00:12:33,753 --> 00:12:35,031
(Laughter)

191
00:12:35,032 --> 00:12:36,550
It happened.

192
00:12:36,602 --> 00:12:37,908
(Laughter)

193
00:12:39,667 --> 00:12:47,001
It was through one of my books
that I met a young student.

194
00:12:47,167 --> 00:12:50,793
We fell in love; with writing,
anything is possible.

195
00:12:50,959 --> 00:12:54,001
We fell in love,
and after a few months, we decided,

196
00:12:54,125 --> 00:12:55,751
to have a "visiting-hours" baby.

197
00:12:56,959 --> 00:12:58,835
Because that's also
part of being human.

198
00:12:59,083 --> 00:13:02,625
So we made a baby during visiting hours.

199
00:13:02,626 --> 00:13:07,418
And in March 2008,
my little girl was born.

200
00:13:08,324 --> 00:13:10,256
(Applause)

201
00:13:14,417 --> 00:13:16,541
Two days after the birth,

202
00:13:16,542 --> 00:13:19,541
- because I didn't go
straight away, I couldn't -

203
00:13:19,542 --> 00:13:21,418
I was in the maternity ward.

204
00:13:21,464 --> 00:13:22,931
A criminal like me.

205
00:13:23,334 --> 00:13:27,252
I end up in the maternity ward,
and I go to see my baby.

206
00:13:27,292 --> 00:13:28,918
They took off my handcuffs.

207
00:13:29,167 --> 00:13:32,001
There was a window,
and I had a good look, but...

208
00:13:32,002 --> 00:13:33,825
(Laughter)

209
00:13:34,250 --> 00:13:36,375
Sometimes it's stronger
than us, but anyway.

210
00:13:37,459 --> 00:13:41,418
I took my daughter in my arms

211
00:13:49,042 --> 00:13:50,996
(Applause)

212
00:14:02,209 --> 00:14:03,543
We called her Tilelli.

213
00:14:03,792 --> 00:14:06,167
Tilelli means freedom in Kabyle,

214
00:14:07,167 --> 00:14:11,376
as it was her who managed
to get me out of prison, after 20 years.

215
00:14:12,876 --> 00:14:18,585
All of that is to tell you,
that I filed a case for parole.

216
00:14:19,918 --> 00:14:23,335
It took 2-3 years, a rock-solid case,

217
00:14:23,876 --> 00:14:26,168
because I was a father,
I had responsibilities,

218
00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:29,292
and at last the sentencing judge,

219
00:14:29,667 --> 00:14:32,042
seeing that I had already
done 25 years in prison,

220
00:14:32,292 --> 00:14:34,084
he said, "He must be released,

221
00:14:34,085 --> 00:14:36,082
because he is a journalist, and a father,

222
00:14:36,083 --> 00:14:37,997
he has become this, he has become that."

223
00:14:39,167 --> 00:14:43,918
And I managed to get my university
qualification, from Paris VII.

224
00:14:43,918 --> 00:14:45,747
(Applause)

225
00:14:50,667 --> 00:14:52,543
All that was to tell you that today,

226
00:14:53,959 --> 00:14:56,793
they think that serial offenders
should be marginalized

227
00:14:58,375 --> 00:15:02,042
that they must take a hard line,
and that they shouldn't be let out.

228
00:15:03,834 --> 00:15:05,460
But I have proved the opposite.

229
00:15:06,042 --> 00:15:08,501
Even with my background, it's possible.

230
00:15:08,501 --> 00:15:10,252
A return to real life is possible.

231
00:15:11,918 --> 00:15:15,836
And it is possible,
thanks to people and goodwill.

232
00:15:17,501 --> 00:15:21,168
And finally, in all dictatorships

233
00:15:21,751 --> 00:15:24,126
the first thing 
which goes away is culture.

234
00:15:24,501 --> 00:15:25,543
It's destroyed.

235
00:15:26,584 --> 00:15:31,126
Ignorance should even be seen
as a crime against humanity.

236
00:15:32,209 --> 00:15:34,793
It is through culture,
that I managed to pull through,

237
00:15:34,794 --> 00:15:37,585
through reading; and with teachers.

238
00:15:38,876 --> 00:15:40,876
We must encourage this sort of thing.

239
00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:43,626
I think back to Chouquet's quote,

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who said that the pen
was mightier than the sword.

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00:15:49,375 --> 00:15:52,167
It is because of the pen
that my greatest escape succeeded.

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00:15:52,876 --> 00:15:53,833
Thank you.

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(Applause)