(Paris) Two investigations for aggravated voluntary violence were opened after the muscular arrest on Saturday in Paris of the brother of a young black man, whose death in 2016 was erected as a symbol of police violence in France, in a country still marked by a recent wave of riots.
These investigations entrusted to the IGPN, “the police of the police”, were launched while the action of the police is again under fire from criticism, since the death on June 27 of a teenager of 17 years old, killed by a policeman during a traffic check he wanted to avoid.
Several nights of riots then occurred in many cities in France, marked by the looting of shops and the destruction of public buildings.
In this context, the authorities had banned a rally scheduled for Saturday in Paris in memory of Adama Traoré, a 24-year-old black man who died shortly after his arrest by gendarmes in July 2016. The investigation into this death is still ongoing. .
Despite everything, the event brought together nearly 2,000 people, including left-wing politicians.
One of Adama Traoré’s brothers, Youssouf Traoré, is accused by the security forces of having “dealed a blow” to a commissioner at the start of the rally. He was arrested later by police officers during the peaceful dispersal of the participants.
A video of the scene, relayed on social networks, shows Youssouf Traoré resisting before being tackled and held to the ground by several police officers.
We also see in these images a woman falling to the ground, brutally pushed by a policeman, as well as three journalists thrown to the ground.
Mr. Traoré and the young woman filed a complaint, prompting the opening of two investigations into intentional violence resulting in total incapacity for work (ITT) of less than eight days and committed by a person holding public authority, said Wednesday the Paris prosecutor’s office.
Regarding the violence denounced by the journalists, an administrative inquiry was launched and two criminal complaints were filed.
According to the medical report that AFP was able to consult, the ventral tackle suffered by his brother caused him a broken nose, head trauma with eye contusion, thoracic, abdominal and lumbar bruises.