Overview

• Marouane Khaled, 25, was wrongfully released from Gradignan prison on April 30, 2025, after his identity was confused with another inmate's due to a near-homonym error.
• Khaled had been serving a ten-year sentence for a 2019 violent robbery that resulted in a fatality, following his conviction in November 2024.
• A judicial investigation was launched immediately to determine the circumstances of the administrative error and locate the released prisoner.
• Nationwide and European arrest warrants have been issued, with law enforcement deploying significant resources to apprehend Khaled, who remains at large as of May 2, 2025.
• The incident has renewed scrutiny of procedural lapses in the French prison system, with similar identity-related errors reported in the past.