86 people were taken into police custody after a gathering at the Sorbonne

The offenses mainly targeted are “deliberate damage” or “violence against a person holding public authority”.

The evacuation of activists opposed to the war in the Gaza Strip at the Sorbonne University in Paris on Tuesday evening resulted in the placement in police custody of 86 people, the Paris prosecutor’s office reported on Wednesday May 8 . All people are adults and a new report must be issued by the public prosecutor during the day.

“The offenses mainly targeted are the following: willful damage, participation in a group with a view to preparing violence against people or destruction/degradation of property, rebellion, violence against a person holding public authority or intrusion into the premises of a school educational establishment in a meeting with the aim of disturbing the tranquility or good order of the establishment”added the prosecution.

Government firmness

The activists, who were around a hundred inside, according to AFP, were slowly taken out into a side street of the university, sometimes carried at arm’s length by agents. The police headquarters reported 88 arrests during this intervention which ended shortly before midnight, according to the rectorate and a police source.

The police also intervened in the day in front of Sciences Po Paris to put an end to gatherings and blocking actions by pro-Palestinian activists, echoing the government’s repeated messages of firmness.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal recalled Monday evening, at the dinner of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (Crif), his firm line: “We will never accept that a manipulated minority claims to make the law. No one should prevent others from working, studying, revising.”