Two questions - spoilers

Can someone please answer my questions?

it's mentioned once or twice that malik is in prison for attacking police officers, but it seems likely he hasn't killed anyone before, as he's so apprehensive about the murder he later commits.

to my understanding, yes. i thought luciani (the corsican) was going to be killed too, but i think in the end it was enough that his empire was destroyed &he had no power left to challenge malik with- as exhibited near the end when malik's security hit him &he falls over. the italians realised they'd been betrayed &so turned against the corsicans. i'm not sure about the arabs!

oh, good. for a moment there i thought we were in trouble.

Malik is sentenced to six years in prison. His defense attorney mentions to him that he did O.K. for his offense of attacking police officers. Malik denies doing it.

After the mole who was working for the Italians is killed, the Corsican who had set up the murder is killed in revenge and some of the Corsicans and allies are killed in prison. Luciano is taken to safety by one of the guards on his payroll. Although Luciano's associates are killed, he continues to have power since he is a very wealthy man who has control over casinos in the south of France and consequently can bribe the prison and criminal justice system.

The Muslims are not involved in the prison fights.

++++++have read another post that does say it was money and that it could have done two things
represented the change from the franc to euro economy--which replicates the changng dynamics in the prison from Cosicans in power to Muslims

or that it was a 50 franc note with Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and "the Little Prince"--which represents the childlike Malik who soon loses his youth and innocence (what he has managed to keep) to the dangers and pressures of learning to survive in prison--
so I agree my initial perception was probably flawed...


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it was not money Malik was putting in his shoe
I thought it was a picture from a magazine
looked like a tropical scene--beach/ocean/palm trees maybe

which was probably something he tore out because it represented a beautiful life, peace, heaven--something to hold his sanity together when he went into prison

the guards found it and took it away--but then when he completed his sentence it was in the box of personal effects they gave back to him
except by that time the picture was too muddled to really recognize

because symbolically--he was never going to have a chance at that version of "pristine happiness"
he was a criminal and he was not entitled to have a vision of the world outside since he himself was corrupted--
or maybe that he did not have to have just a "vision" of paradise--that now with his power he could create a paradise for himself that would be real vs imaginary

"...That's the beauty of argument, Joey. If you argue correctly, you're never wrong..."