Convicted of ramming a police vehicle, he fled the courthouse to avoid prison.

A man who appeared in court as a free man for an aggravated refusal to comply in which two police officers were injured last week in Lyon, left the court just before the pronouncement of the sentence of 3 years and 10 months of imprisonment which he received.

Present at his trial, he slipped away just before the verdict. A warrant had been issued by the Lyon prosecutor's office for a man sentenced this Monday to three years and ten months in prison for aggravated refusal to comply with a police order. But the defendant, who had appeared in court as a free man, was able to leave the courthouse during the recess before the sentence was pronounced.

“If he had been remanded in custody by the judge of freedoms and detention, he would have been incarcerated,” fumes Alain Barberis, departmental secretary of the Alliance police union. The accused had been released pending his trial following his arraignment at the end of last week. This decision had sparked outrage from the union. “Yet this is someone known to the police, a repeat offender, who wanted to kill our officers,” Barberis told Le Figaro, clearly annoyed.

Hooded and drunk while driving

Driving under the influence of alcohol in a stolen Clio he was driving without a license, the man crashed into an unmarked police car belonging to the anti-crime squad in the Gerland district last week. The unmarked vehicle, equipped with flashing lights and a blaring siren, was responding to a patrol car that was attempting to stop the driver on Avenue Tony Garnier shortly before 2:00 a.m. on Thursday. The two officers inside the car had to be hospitalized for back and neck pain.

The driver was eventually apprehended. He and his passengers were wearing balaclavas and gloves, according to the Alliance police union. The passengers even resisted arrest. For all these offenses, the driver was sentenced to three years and four months in prison. The revocation of a six-month suspended sentence from a previous conviction brings the total sentence to three years and ten months, the prosecutor's office stated. A sentence he may, however, serve... once he is apprehended.