(Cergy-Pontoise) French justice has banned a march planned for Saturday in the Paris region in memory of a man who died during an arrest in 2016, citing the riots that followed the death of young Nahel, and while other gatherings citizens are announced in France.
Seized urgently, the administrative court of Cergy-Pontoise, near Paris, invoked “the context of the riots which followed the death of Nahel” on June 27 in Nanterre, to base its decision, rendered Friday evening.
The death of 17-year-old Nahel, killed at point-blank range during a roadside check in Nanterre, west of Paris, set the country ablaze, causing several consecutive nights of violence, burning cars or garbage cans, ransacking of public buildings and looting in many towns in France.
“Although the violence has diminished in recent days, its extremely recent nature does not allow us to assume that any risk of disturbing public order has disappeared,” the court said in a statement.
In a video message posted on Twitter, Assa Traoré, Adama’s older sister and activist, confirmed that “there will be no march tomorrow (Saturday) in Beaumont-sur-Oise”, where it was planned.
“The government has decided to add fuel to the fire” and “not to respect the death of my little brother”, she said.
This figure in the fight against police violence added that she would be present “Saturday at 3 p.m. Place de la République” in Paris to shout “to the whole world that our dead have the right to exist, even in death”.
At this location, a “march for justice” is planned for Saturday afternoon, among around thirty other demonstrations against police violence listed in France on an online map.
The prefect of Val-d’Oise announced Thursday evening the banning of this annual demonstration, in memory of Adama Traoré, who died during an arrest in 2016 and erected as an emblem of police violence.
In the process, the Adama committee, led by Assa Traoré, filed an interim release, an emergency procedure to have the decision annulled.
It is “a family walk, with children in a rural setting”, declared at the hearing Mr.e Arié Alimi, one of the three lawyers on the Adama committee, believing that the decree was “a political instrumentalization of the fundamental right to demonstrate”.
Coming in person to defend his measure in court, the prefect of Val-d’Oise said he did not have enough staff to ensure the safety of the event. “Law enforcement is exhausted,” he said on the stand.
On July 19, 2016, Adama Traoré, a 24-year-old black man, died in the courtyard of the Persan barracks, about thirty kilometers north of Paris, shortly after his arrest by gendarmes after a chase. .
The collective “Vérité pour Adama” brings together hundreds of people every year on the occasion of a march to demand the indictment of the gendarmes in question and to denounce more widely police violence.