2023-08-03 07:37:00
The Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal is examining Thursday the sensitive file of the detention of one of the officials suspected of having injured the young man.
By IM with AFP Justice decides Thursday, August 3 on the provisional detention of a Bac policeman accused of having seriously injured the young Hedi on the sidelines of the riots in Marseille. (Illustrative image) © Emma BUONCRISTIANI / MAXPPP / PHOTOPQR/LE BIEN PUBLIC/MAXPPP Published on 03/08/2023 at 07:37
The investigating chamber of the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal (Bouches-du-Rhône) must decide on Thursday August 3 whether or not to keep in prison the police officer of the anti-crime brigade (BAC) of Marseille, suspected to be behind an LBD shooting in early July which led to the amputation of part of the skull of Hedi, 22, on the sidelines of the riots. A flammable file which has sparked a sling in some police stations and a political controversy.
The official must be present at the public hearing which will begin at 8:30 a.m.
According to the local news site Marsactu, which does not cite a source, the general prosecutor’s office will request continued detention, which the latter refuses to comment on when questioned by AFP. The situation of another official, also implicated and who challenges his judicial review, will also be examined, but behind closed doors. Decisions will be made quickly, possibly during the day.
“Risk of consultation” of the police
The imprisonment of the Marseille policeman two weeks ago, after that of the policeman indicted for having killed Nahel M, 17, in Nanterre at the end of June, triggered a slingshot in part of the ranks of the police. “Knowledge in prison keeps me awake,” said police boss Frédéric Veaux, who considers “that before a possible trial, a police officer has no place in prison”.
Remarks which sparked a controversy, up to the top of the state, on the independence of justice and the status of the police, also upsetting the magistrates. “It is up to the judicial authority alone to conduct the investigations useful to the manifestation of the truth, in all impartiality and free from pressure”, moreover recalled the heads of the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal. in Provence.
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It is precisely in order not to give the impression of pressure on the judicial institution that the police unions play the appeasement and do not call for mobilizations of support on the sidelines of the hearing, even if several of them they are hoping for release. If the judges decided on a release, there would be a “monumental risk of consultation” with the three other police officers prosecuted, estimates Hedi’s lawyer, Me Jacques-Antoine Preziosi.
The young man should not be present because of his great fatigue, he told AFP. On Monday, Hedi had declared on BFMTV to have “confidence” in justice, but had regretted not having had support from the State. Since then, the government spokesperson has called him to hear from him, confirmed Olivier Véran’s entourage.
The lawyer for the police officer in pre-trial detention, Me Pierre Gassend, did not respond to AFP’s requests.
One of the police officers already implicated in a case
In the Hedi case, four police officers are indicted for “willful violence resulting in an ITT [incapacité totale de travail] more than 8 days, aggravated by three circumstances in that they were committed in a meeting, with the use or threat of a weapon and by a person holding public authority in the exercise of their functions”.
The Marseille prosecutor’s office had requested their placement in pre-trial detention, which is rare. In the end, only one was imprisoned and the three others were placed under judicial control with “prohibition from entering into contact with the co-authors, the victim and the other protagonists and prohibition from exercising the professional activity of police officer” .
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The Mediapart information site also revealed on Monday that the name of one of them appeared in another file of police violence dating from the Yellow Vests, in 2018. Questioned by AFP, the Marseille prosecutor’s office confirmed that this police officer had been heard as a witness in the context of the rogatory commission relating to the so-called “Maria” case, renamed “Angelina”, since the young woman testified in the press. After two dismissals, an investigating judge noting that “without a shadow of a doubt” the people who attacked the 19-year-old young woman “had the quality of police officers”, the investigations resumed.
A total of 31 investigations by the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN), the police force, were opened following the riots, AFP learned on Wednesday from a police source.
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