2023-06-29 18:13:03
The policeman who fired the shot during a traffic check that led to the death of Nahel in Nanterre, was indicted for intentional homicide and placed in pre-trial detention, the prosecution announced on Thursday, June 29.
“Tonight my client went to prison for having applied a shot that he thought was necessary, with the weapon given to him by the State to ensure his safety and that of the citizens”, indicated the policeman’s lawyer, Me Laurent-Franck Liénard, to AFP. “This judicial decision, we will challenge it and fight it, by all means of law. We will demonstrate that he has acted in accordance with the law, once the political pressure and the anger of the street have calmed down and that we can be listened to,” he added.
“The prosecution considers that the legal conditions for the use of the weapon are not met”, underlined in the morning the public prosecutor of Nanterre, Pascal Prache during a press conference. A video, authenticated by AFP, showed that one of the two police officers held Nahel at gunpoint after refusing to comply, then fired at point-blank range. The young driver died shortly after being hit in the chest. One of the two passengers in the vehicle is still wanted.
After two nights of urban violence, a march in tribute to the 17-year-old young man left around 2 p.m. in Nanterre, to cries of “justice for Nahel” and “never again”. The victim’s mother, perched on a van, wearing a “Justice for Nahel” T-shirt, opened the demonstration, followed by more than 6,200 participants gathered behind a banner bearing the same slogan.
Leaving from the Pablo Picasso city, the demonstrators arrived at Nelson Mandela Square, where Nahel died on Tuesday: they observed a minute of silence at the scene of the tragedy. The march ended in confusion with clashes, exchanges of tear gas and fireworks, some fires and destroyed street furniture. Several cars were set on fire. Eight people were arrested, according to the police headquarters, which counted “1,000 disruptors who degenerated the march”.
The minor’s death on Tuesday was followed by an outbreak of violence, particularly in Île-de-France, which escalated overnight from Wednesday to Thursday. In front of the facades of town halls blackened by the flames, the many charred carcasses of cars and the smell of burning that wafted in the early morning in many cities in France.
The executive between appeasement and firmness
Emmanuel Macron denounced “scenes of violence” against “institutions and the Republic” which are “unjustifiable”. In an attempt to avoid a repeat of the November 2005 riots in working-class neighborhoods, the president convened an interministerial crisis unit in the morning. The non-priority trips of ministers scheduled for Thursday have been postponed.
Last night alone, 180 people were arrested, 170 police and gendarmes injured, and several public buildings “burned or attacked”, according to the Interior Ministry.
“Avoid any escalation”
“I really call for a return to calm, as quickly as possible,” pleaded Benoit Jimenez, mayor of Garges-lès-Gonesse, where the town hall was burned down. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne called for “avoiding any escalation”. Schools were also targeted, such as in Tourcoing, Evreux (Eure) or Halluin (North), and police stations in Rouen, Elbeuf (Seine-Maritime) and Trappes (Yvelines) to name but a few. In Amiens, a media library was “completely destroyed” by fire.
“All of this must stop,” said the Keeper of the Seals, who went to Fresnes prison (Val-de-Marne), attacked with fireworks by hooded people. “Anyone who irresponsibly […] spit on the police and on justice are also the moral accomplices of the abuses that are committed”, also criticized Eric Dupond-Moretti.
In Nanterre, in the working-class Pablo-Picasso district in particular, the clashes lasted until the middle of the night, with cobblestones being thrown, cries of “death to the cops!” and “justice for Nahel” tags, to which the police responded with tear gas.
In the neighboring department of Seine-Saint-Denis, police sources reported multiple car and shop fires, looting, police stations attacked, town halls degraded, a media library burnt down… Incidents were also deplored in several cities of Hauts-de-Seine but also elsewhere in France, in Lyon, Roubaix, Amiens and Nice, Dijon and Toulouse.
A tram and eleven buses were set on fire during the riots that troubled Ile-de-France overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, which led the president of Ile-de-France Mobilités (IDFM) Valérie Pécresse to ask to stop serving sensitive neighborhoods on Thursday evening from 9 p.m.
In Clamart, in the Hauts-de-Seine, a curfew between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. is in place from Thursday evening to Monday morning in response to the violence that occurred last night in this city.
Reinforcement of police deployment
The tragedy at the origin of the conflagration occurred near the Nanterre-Préfecture RER station, during a police check on the car driven by Nahel, a 17-year-old minor known for refusing to comply . The precedent had earned him a presentation to the prosecution last Sunday, with a view to a summons next September before a juvenile court. The case has reignited controversy over the action of law enforcement in France, where a record number of 13 deaths were recorded in 2022 after refusals to comply during traffic checks.
On Thursday, voices rose on the right to demand a state of emergency, like the president of the Republicans Eric Ciotti, who wants these exceptional measures which had been used in November 2005 to be introduced “without delay”. after 10 days of riots in the suburbs.
“I believe that we can mobilize a lot of resources […] without having to resort to specific articles of the Constitution”, reacted Gérald Darmanin, who announced a greater security deployment for Thursday evening: 40,000 police and gendarmes mobilized, including 5,000 in Paris (compared to 2,000 the The government is also planning a “change of doctrine, more offensive” in the response to the riots, according to a police source.
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