One dead and four injured in a fire in Puig de les Basses prison
The prisoner who would have caused the fire and who died in the incident had denounced mistreatment and coercion by prison officials in Mas d'Enric
BarcelonaAn inmate of the penitentiary center Puig de les Basses, in Figueres, has died this Sunday afternoon in a fire caused by himself and two other inmates in the two cells they occupied. The other two prisoners and two officials of the center have been injured by smoke inhalation, although there are no fears for his life, according to the Department of Justice. They have been transferred to the Palamos and Figueres Hospital .
According to the Department, the fire started in two closed-regime cells for men, known as DERT, and where inmates are held for 21 hours a day. The prison guards suffocated the fire and managed to rescue the inmates from inside the cells, although one of them died shortly after. The judicial committee has traveled to the center to remove the body and an investigation has been opened to clarify the causes of the incident.
The prisoner who died in the fire is Mohamed Chouli el Hosni, 30 years old, who was serving a sentence of 13 years and 22 months in prison for several robberies with violence and that, according to sources of the Observatory of the Penal System and Human Rights (OSPDH), a year ago denounced mistreatment and coercion by prison officials of Mas d'Enric, in the Catllar. According to the same sources, Chouli was transferred from Mas d'Enric to Puig de els Basses in July 2020.
The Union UGT has denounced that the incident "is a consequence of the policies regimentals" and has demanded "deep changes" in the secretariat of penal measures to the Minster of Justice, Lourdes Ciuró.
