The General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) was seized to investigate the complaints of two women. They accuse the police of having hit them on the Clichy bridge (Hauts-de-Seine) on April 14, the Nanterre prosecution told AFP on Wednesday May 4.
This investigation was opened on April 28 for “violence by public authority” and for “public insult”. The three police officers claim for their part to have been victims of violence and have also filed a complaint.
“My clients are relieved of this preliminary investigation” entrusted to the IGPN, commented to AFP their lawyer, Nabil Boudi, who “welcomes the speed with which the prosecution took up the complaint” filed on April 21, but which “regrets that the racist and Islamophobic character was not retained”. In their complaint against X consulted by AFP, the two women, aged 23 and 24, accuse three police officers of having hit them several times on the Clichy bridge on April 14. One of them also denounces an attempt to tear off her hijab.
The young women say they were crossing at a pedestrian crossing when a police car activated its flashing lights “to force the passage” and “suddenly braked in the middle of the lane when arriving at their level”. The two women claim that a police officer then got out of the vehicle “to control them” and struck “several slaps” to one of them, who also denounced a ventral tackle.
Two police officers are accused of hitting “on the back and chest” the second young woman, and to have insulted her with “dirty whore” before she “pass out”. The complaint also denounces an identity check “illegal in form” because based on “the only distinctive element of the two young women” : “wearing the hijab”. After the fact, videos had circulated on social networks.
The version of the police differs widely. The police filed a complaint on April 16 for “contempt”, “rebellion in a meeting” and “violence against persons holding public authority”, leading to the opening of another preliminary investigation in Nanterre.
According to their account, reported in a tweet from the police headquarters, the two women “crossed the road” while the police patrol had “activated the sound and light warning devices, to control a vehicle in violation”. “Despite the emergency, two women crossed the road, outraged the police and evaded control in the middle of a crowd that intervened”continued the police headquarters.