A 21-year-old Romanian jailed in September last year for possessing drugs and convicted to one year committed suicide on Sunday in the Nice jail. Ovidiu Datcu was found dead on Sunday afternoon, his head hanging in a belt tied to one of the window’s prison bars. Shortly before that the young man had refused to go out for a walk. He took advantage of being alone in the cell and committed suicide, the ‘Nice Matin’ daily wrote. The fact that this was a suicide is not doubted although the Romanian left no last note. He would have been released in June 2010 or possibly on parole in the spring. According to the initial investigation, ordered by deputy prosecutor Jean Coutton, Ovidiu Datcu felt lonely. He was unable to communicate with the persons around him because he did not speak French and nobody visited him while he was in jail. In fact he did not tell the jail’s administration the name of any person that should have been notified if a problem were to arise. Given these conditions, it is possible he gave in to despair unless he consumed substances that could have driven him to this gesture, the aforementioned daily writes. The deputy prosecutor has ordered an autopsy. Old and crowded, the Nice jail registered 7 deaths in 2007 and two suicides in 2008. This was the second suicide registered there this year.
previous post
