A French court on Thursday ordered a police officer accused of seriously injuring a man during recent riots to remain in pre-trial custody, with the ruling sparking protests from his colleagues.
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The case has prompted heated debate over police behaviour during the unrest in June and early July which was triggered when an officer shot and killed a teenager during a traffic check near Paris.
In the incident in Marseille, on France’s southern coast, a man named as Hedi, 22, said he was beaten by four or five men he identified as police during unrest in the city.
He said he was also hit in the head by a “blast ball” fired by police and underwent operations during which surgeons said they had to remove part of his skull.
Blast balls, also known as rubber ball grenades, are sometimes used by police in riot situations.
Four police were charged last month over the incident, including the officer remanded in custody who has been identified only by his first name, Christophe.
‘Discredit’
He admitted in court on Thursday to firing a blast ball round, reversing an earlier denial, but said he did not see anybody injured. His lawyer added that there was no proof it was his round that had wounded Hedi.
CCTV footage, meanwhile, left no doubt that Hedi had been beaten up, the lead prosecutor in the case said.
Last month, police chief Frederic Veaux said that “a police officer should not be in prison” ahead of his trial, “even if he may have committed serious faults or errors”.
The policeman’s lawyer has argued that there was no flight risk for his client or any risk of him putting pressure on Hedi.
But the court agreed with the prosecutor who had pointed to a danger of the officers fabricating a narrative about the incident if he was allowed out of custody.
The president of the court in Aix-en-Provence said the policeman’s false initial statements had “thrown everything he has said into discredit”.
‘Not criminals’
Hedi’s lawyer welcomed the ruling, saying “justice is being done”.
But the powerful police union Alliance said the ruling was “incomprehensible and very unfair”.
Alliance regional secretary Sebastien Greneron said “our colleague should not stay in jail”, adding: “Policemen are officials, policemen are not criminals.”
The four policemen have been charged with “deliberate violence leading to a complete incapacity to work”, with aggravating circumstances including collusion and threat or use of a weapon by a public official.
They have been ordered to abstain from any contact with each other or with the victim.
After the officer’s arrest, several hundred Marseille police officers went on sick leave in protest over his detention.
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Others responded to the call of the SGP Police Unit union and put themselves under “code 562”, which means they only respond to emergency and essential missions.
Socialist Party chief Olivier Faure called the police reaction “extremely serious” and called for the law to be respected.
“The entire police hierarchy is placing itself above justice and the rules of pre-trial detention,” he said.
The French police force’s internal affairs unit has launched investigations into 31 cases of alleged police misconduct during the riots, a police source told AFP on Wednesday.
(AFP)
This story originally appeared on France24
