PROCES An investigation was opened by the IGPN after the broadcast of a video showing police beating revelers in the center of Marseille
The national police, Place de la Joliette in Marseille. — SOPA Images/SIPA
- On Tuesday, two police officers appeared for intentional violence against three young partygoers in Marseille.
- A video posted on social networks and which immortalizes the violent scene is at the heart of the case.
This is one of the rare points on which we will agree on one side ; like on the other side of the bar. A simple video, made by a neighbor, and which quickly circulated. on social networks before being published by La Provence,overturned a highly sensitive case of police violence last year. Filmed near the Saint-Charles train station in Marseille, this video immortalizes what was, at the end of the day. originally, a banal police intervention, and which is found, in the end, at the heart of the trial which opens this Tuesday before the Marseille criminal court, during which two police officers are tried for violence volunteers. 20 Minutes comes back to this audience and its issues.
What do we see on the video?
On the night of April 29 to 30, 2021, while France is in the middle of a curfew, a team from the BAC intervenes on rue du Commandant Mages, in the city center of Marseille. When law enforcement arrives on scene, according to a statement. from the police headquarters at the time, they discover “people on a scaffolding and a building roof” Their intervention is filmed throughout by a neighbor of these people, who asked to remain anonymous.
In the famous video at the heart of the case, we can see a young man, Eliott, visibly drunk, being beaten up. to several times by the police on the bonnet of a car, then pulled by the hair to the police vehicle where he is struck again. His companion, Marion., who tried to intervene, was thrown to the ground by an official and then sprayed with tear gas. A third person present on the spot, Clément, is also abused. The police arrest them and take them to the Noailles police station, in the center of the city. Marseille.
Une banale intervention de police menée à Saint-Charles ( 1er), a singulièrement dérapé dans la nuit de jeudi à vendredi. Les policiers de la Division centre ont été appelés pour une soirée sauvage dans un appartement avec des jeunes fortement alcoolisés pic.twitter.com/n7ZVl8gah1
— La Provence (@laprovence)
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What happened?
In a press release press release sent shortly after the broadcast of the video, the Bouches-du-Rhône police headquarters initially indicated that the young couple had been arrested. arrested “for acts of contempt, rebellion and willful violence against persons in authority; public. The circumstances of the arrest were immediately disclosed. contested by the respondents who, for their part, accused two police officers of violence.”
In the initial report, the police report in particular having been victims of a punch in the face from Eliott. Placed on guard at; sight, the couple left the police station of Noailles 43 hours later, with a simple reminder to; the law. “At no time was I violent, hammers Marion, one of the victims. I’ve never been violence in my life. I did 43 hours of call duty. seen for nothing. Çhas been 43 hours of humiliation. Arrived at the police station, we were expressly told that we should not hire a lawyer because it would lengthen the procedure. And I believed them.”
“Watch the video and tell me. a single moment when my clients violated the police, plague his lawyer, Thomas Hughes. Persons with authority public have transfigured the truth. Luckily the video says they did nothing, but I can’t accept the fact that the police slipped up.” The lawyer carried complaint in parallel with this procedure for forgery in public writing, and seized the general inspection of the national police (IGPN).
And in the end?
The IGPN’s investigation was ended in June 2021 and the prosecution is prosecuting the two police officers for intentional violence by persons in authority. public, dismissing the fact that they would have been committed in a meeting or that the use of the tear gas canister had been outside the legal framework. “The investigation was conducted sloppy, accuses Me Hugues. Instead of appearing for violence in assembly, for penalties ranging from 7 to ten years in prison, the prosecution was lowered. The prosecution considered that there had been two separate scenes of violence. We are on a miscarriage of justice.” Contacted, the lawyer for one of the two defendants, Me Félicie Jassem, indicated that his client « was waiting to be judged precisely » and that she would plead for release.