Jewish inmates arrested in France for bribing prison officials

Prisoners Arnaud Mimran and Eric Robic tried to win preferential treatment, while French-Israeli Fabrice Touil hepled them from the outside, investigators suspect

Seven men, including a Jewish chaplain, two Jewish inmates, a director and a supervisor at one of France’s biggest prisons, were detained Monday on suspicion of corruption, sources close to the investigation told AFP.

The director and supervisor employed by the Fresnes jail, in the suburbs of Paris, are suspected of having received bribes from inmates in exchange for preferential treatment. Nearly 280,000 euros were allegedly found during searches of the prison and of their homes on Monday.

The inmates suspected as the bribe-givers were understood to be Arnaud Mimran and Eric Robic.

Mimran, who has claimed in the past that he gave donations to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was jailed in July 2016 for eight years and fined one million euros for his part in an over €283 million fraud involving the trade of carbon emissions permits and the taxes on them.

Robic was sentenced to five years in jail in December 2014 for a hit-and-run killing of 25-year-old Lee Zeitouni in Tel Aviv in 2011. Robic fled to France after the incident.

A court sketch shows French defendants Eric Robic (L) and Claude Khayat (R) standing trial on November 27, 2014 at the courtroom in Paris on charges of a hit-and-run road accident in Tel Aviv that killed a young Israeli woman, Lee Zeitouni, a 25-year-old pilates instructor, and sparked outrage in Israel after the pair fled to France. (AFP/ BENOIT PEYRUCQ)

A third man, Fabrice Touil, a dual French-Israeli citizen also suspected of involvement in the carbon emissions scam, was arrested at his home in Paris on suspicion of having been the middleman who passed the money from the prisoners to the officials.

Investigators are reportedly trying to understand what role was played by Avraham Philippe Chelly, who serves as the Jewish chaplain for the Ile de France region.

In December 2016, two prison supervisors were questioned on suspicion of having provided cellphones, food and alcohol to prisoners in exchange for payment.

In early March, French prisons comptroller Adeline Hazan described Fresnes Prison, filled to nearly double its intended capacity, as “appalling” with “rats pretty much everywhere.”