2023-06-29 18:45:00
A French policeman was charged Thursday with intentional homicide and placed in pre-trial detention two days after the death, near Paris, of a teenager, Nahel, which led to two nights of violence in France and a white march Thursday, completed in the confusion and clashes.
The march in tribute to the 17-year-old young man had started around 2:00 p.m. local time in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine department, west of Paris), where he died, shot in the chest by a police officer. .
The victim’s mother, on a van, wearing a “Justice for Nahel” t-shirt, opened the parade, which brought together 6,200 people, according to a police source. They went to the scene of the tragedy to observe a minute of silence.
Thursday morning, the public prosecutor of Nanterre Pascal Prache had indicated that the prosecution considered “that the legal conditions for the use of the weapon” of the author of the shot, a 38-year-old motorcyclist, were “not met “.
“The police officer referred today as part of an opening of judicial investigation for intentional homicide has been indicted on this count and placed in pre-trial detention”, then announced the prosecution.
“False Statements”
A lawyer for the family, Yassine Bouzrou, deplored that the prosecutor had “hidden the possible complicity in voluntary homicide of the second policeman and the possible forgery in public writings resulting from the initial false declarations of the shooter, who had formally affirmed that the young Nahel tried to ram him with the vehicle.
His death was followed by an outbreak of violence, particularly in the Paris region, which escalated further overnight from Wednesday to Thursday.
In front of the facades of town halls blackened by flames, the many charred carcasses of cars and the smell of burning that wafted through many cities in the early morning in France, President Emmanuel Macron denounced “unjustifiable” violence against “institutions and the Republic”.
Schools, media libraries and police stations were targeted, as well as buses in the Paris region.
At least three cities not far from Paris have decided to establish a curfew, sometimes for several days, on their entire territory or certain districts only, for all or minors only.
In Lille, in the North, the prefecture has banned all gatherings in certain sectors, where an elite police unit has been deployed.
In the Paris region, buses and trams, targeted overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, will stop running from 9:00 p.m. Thursday.
“Generalization” of violence
According to an information note quoted by a police source, the violence could “generalize” during the “next nights”.
The Head of State had convened an interministerial crisis unit in the morning to try to avoid the recurrence of riots which had broken out in November 2005 in working-class neighborhoods, after the death of two teenagers, electrocuted in a transformer while that they were hiding there from the police.
The government assured that the triggering of the state of emergency, demanded by certain voices on the right, was “not an option considered today”.
Gérald Darmanin announced the mobilization Thursday evening of 40,000 police and gendarmes, including 5,000 in Paris (against 2,000 last night).
The tragedy at the origin of the conflagration occurred during a police check of the car driven by Nahel, known for refusing to comply. The precedent had earned him a presentation to the prosecution last Sunday, with a view to a summons in September before a juvenile court.
The case has reignited controversy over law enforcement action in France, where a record 13 deaths were recorded in 2022 after refusals to comply.
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