21 August 2007
08/21/2007 01:54 Source: AP ©

Early prison release for some pedophiles will soon be out of question. Nicolas Sarkozy thinks that
the kidnapping and rape of a 5-year-old boy are commited by a repeat sex offender who had been
prescribed Viagra while behind bars.

After a meeting with several top ministers, Sarkozy said he had asked Justice Minister Rachida Dati
to include the measure in a prisons law set to be presented in parliament in November.

Sarkozy said the French were "very shocked" after the 5-year-old was kidnapped from his home in the
northern town of Roubaix on Wednesday and allegedly raped by convicted pedophile Francis Evrard. The
61-year-old, convicted three times, was released from prison in July.

Working off a new kidnapping alert system that quickly went into effect, authorities found Evrard and
the boy in a Roubaix garage about 12 hours after the child went missing, officials said.

"Everything must be put in place to make sure this doesn't happen again," Sarkozy told reporters
Monday. It was his first day back at work after a two-week U.S. holiday.

"What happened? A person who over his career committed several rapes of minors was sentenced to 27
years in prison - he served 18," said Sarkozy, referring to Evrard. "I don't understand why."

Sarkozy added that sex criminals who could still be considered dangerous should not benefit from
early release.

Sarkozy also said the new bill should include funds for the construction of prison-hospitals, where
sex offenders like Evrard could be held. Panels of medical experts would examine how dangerous
outgoing sex offenders were before they would be granted release.

Sarkozy met with the boy's father Monday. Evrard faces preliminary charges related to the kidnap and
rape of a minor.

Police and prison officials in the Normandy city of Caen, where Evrard served his sentence, said that
a prison doctor had acknowledged prescribing him Viagra a month before his release, but that the
doctor did not know why he was behind bars.

The doctor turned himself in to Caen police Sunday, and was being held for questioning, the officials
said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

Dati, the justice minister, said Sunday that a judicial investigation had been opened into how Evrard
had obtained the erectile dysfunction drug.

The conservative Sarkozy, a former interior minister, has made cracking down on repeat offenders a
priority since taking office in May.