Riots in Marseille: injured in the eye, a cousin of a young man killed blames an LBD shot, an open investigation

2023-07-25 09:09:18

This is a new complaint filed in the midst of controversy after the placement in pre-trial detention of a police officer suspected of police violence. The Marseille public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into similar facts during the nights of riots between the end of June and the beginning of July in the Marseille city, following a complaint filed by a young man, we learned on Monday.

The investigation was opened of the heads of “willful violence in a meeting having resulted in mutilation or permanent infirmity by a person holding public authority and with a weapon”, indicated the prosecution, confirming information from the regional daily. Provence, which specifies that the plaintiff is 22 years old and that he was seriously injured in the eye on the sidelines of the riots. According to him, an LBD projectile was the cause of his injury, indicates BFM.

According to information from Liberation and Mediapart, confirmed by Le Parisien, this young man presented himself as the cousin of Mohamed, who died on the night of July 1 to 2 in Marseille in still unclear conditions, while he was riding a scooter. Mohamed, a 27-year-old delivery man, died after a violent shock to the chest caused by the firing of a flash-ball type projectile, the prosecution had indicated, without the location of the tragedy having been determined. The judicial police but also the IGPN were responsible for the investigation.

The prosecution did not detail the number of police officers involved, just stating that the facts would have taken place on the night of June 30 to July 1. That night, the center of Marseille had been plagued by violent riots which had followed the death of Nahel, a 17-year-old teenager killed by a policeman in Nanterre during a road check on June 27.

Four police officers charged

The announcement of this new investigation by the Marseille prosecutor’s office comes as four police officers from the same city were indicted last week and one of them placed in pre-trial detention. They are suspected of having beaten a young man on the sidelines of the riots in early July.

This placement in pre-trial detention aroused the anger of the police, supported by the director general of the police. The unions of magistrates judged them “serious” the statements the day before of the director general of the national police (DGPN), Frédéric Veaux, wishing with the Parisian the release of this policeman from the BAC of Marseille.

From New Caledonia, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron said he understood the “emotion” of the police while specifying that “no one in the Republic is above the law”.