the IGPN seized after the eye injury of a union protester

2023-04-26 20:10:56

An investigation was opened at the end of March to determine the circumstances in which a trade unionist was seriously injured in the eye during a demonstration in Paris against the pension reform, announced Wednesday April 26 the Paris prosecutor’s office, requested by the Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Sébastien N., SUD-Rail union representative and railway agent aged 46, “was heard as a victim” on April 21 to the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN), said the prosecution, confirming information from Mediapart. The public prosecutor told AFP that it had seized the IGPN on March 30, after receiving a report, on March 27, from a senator “reporting several videos circulating on social networks” which showed scenes from a demonstration that took place on March 23 in the capital.

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Fifty-nine judicial investigations since the start of the mobilization

The investigation, opened for willful violence by a person holding public authority, first consisted of “identify the victim” visible on the videos, in particular by contacting the trade unionist’s federation, explained the prosecution. The IGPN then told him “suggested an appointment”, he explains. The investigations are continuing, the police of the fonts currently exploiting “videos recovered from social networks and video surveillance of public roads”.

Sébastien N. had also sent, in mid-April, a complaint against X to the prosecution for aggravated willful violence “resulting in mutilation or permanent infirmity”. “Sébastien N. will never recover his sight”lamented Wednesday his lawyer, Aïnoha Pascual, affirming “in view of the first elements” that the trade unionist had been injured by a disencirclement grenade “even as he strolled with his son (…) within the procession and several tens of meters from the police”.

M^e Pascual denounced in his statement “a general context of repression of police violence” and castigated a “willingness to deter through fear by marking the flesh and the spirit”.

Since the first day of mobilization against the pension reform in January, the IGPN has been seized of “fifty-nine judicial inquiries”, according to the director of the IGPN, Agnès Thibault-Lecuivre, who spoke last week on franceinfo.

Read also: Demonstration of January 19 in Paris against the pension reform: a man amputated from a testicle following a baton from a policeman

The World with AFP