Alexandre Mathieu is tall, and wears a gray suit. Laurent Théron is small, and he lacks one eye, the right. The two men face each other on Monday, December 12, in the imposing Voltaire room of the Paris Courthouse, six years after their first meeting, on September 15, 2016. That day, Place de la République, Alexandre Mathieu wore his CRS uniform, and Laurent Théron still had his two eyes.
Two years before the birth of the “yellow vests” movement, it was against the “labour” law of Minister Myriam El Khomri that part of the country demonstrated. The Paris parade had been peppered with violence and the Place de la République, the end point of the demonstration, had been the scene of clashes which had culminated in the burning of a CRS, hit by a Molotov cocktail. The situation had calmed down by late afternoon.
Around 4:50 p.m., Mr. Théron, a protester in his fifties, was about to leave the square when a hand grenade of encirclement (GMD), launched from a line of CRS located 15 meters away, exploded near him. Laurent Théron collapsed on the ground. He had received in the face one of the 18 rubber pebbles of 9.3 grams propelled at very high speed by the GMD at the time of its explosion – this weapon has since been replaced, in the arsenal of the maintenance of order, by a less dangerous model.
On the images captured that day by amateur videographers and broadcast to the audience on Monday, we see the CRS line in the middle of the square, we see the trajectory of the grenade, we even see the moment when it explodes in the air, throwing its small rubber pebbles. We do not see the moment of impact with Mr. Théron’s face, but we hear him scream very well “ouch, my eye, bloody hell!” », an eye that an operation at the Hôtel-Dieu will not save. So here is the CRS Alexandre Mathieu before the assizes – a rarity for a member of the police – for “willful violence resulting in mutilation or permanent disability by a person holding public authority”. The maximum penalty is fifteen years.
” I beg your pardon “
What is at stake in the trial is not whether it was the 54-year-old accused who threw the grenade: he had reported himself at the start of the investigation to the IGPN, the police of the police, who was looking for a left-handed CRS who launched a GMD that day. During his first words on Monday – he has not yet been questioned about the facts, only about his background – Mr. Mathieu said to himself “deeply, sincerely sorry for the serious injury” that he inflicted on Laurent Théron, to whom he turned: “I’m ashamed of what happened, I beg your pardon. »
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