“The judges refuse to accept the truth but seek to impose their truth”, declares to franceinfo Yassine Bouzrou, lawyer for the family of Adama Traoré, who died on July 19, 2016 during his arrest in Beaumont-sur-Oise (Val-d’Oise) by three gendarmes, while the examining magistrates asked to Belgian doctors who had rendered an expertise in January 2021 questioning the action of the gendarmes in the death of the 24-year-old to review their copy, after the recent death of one of the four experts.
Rendered on January 27, this expertise concluded that Adama Traoré had been the victim of “constraint asphyxiation” caused by a “thoraco-abdominal compression” after “potentially asphyxiating immobilization maneuvers”, during his arrest by the three gendarmes. On June 30, the judges ordered an additional medical expertise, the investigators having collected new testimonies and medical elements, but the death of one of the four doctors in October pushes the magistrate to replace him and to ask again this complete expertise that was expected.
In its order dated Tuesday, November 16 and that Franceinfo was able to consult, the investigating judges responsible for the case actually ask Belgian doctors to submit a new expertise before February 15, 2022. This new request for an expertise is justified in this order by the recent death of one of the four Belgian experts who had made the previous expertise. Including the expertises ordered by the judges and the second opinions requested by the family, this will be Adama Traoré’s tenth medical expertise.
“The recent accumulation of evidence against the gendarmes seems embarrassing for the investigating judges.”
Yassine Bouzrou, lawyer for the Adama Traoré familyto franceinfo
Yassine Bouzrou deplores a case that is bogged down, with twelve investigating judges who have already succeeded on this file for more than five years. Solicited, Me Rodolphe Bosselut, lawyer for two of the three gendarmes, declares that he does not wish to comment.
On September 27, Adama Traoré’s sister, Assa Traoré, lodged a complaint against the investigating judge in charge of this investigation for “concealing evidence, forgery in public documents and attempted fraud in the judgment”, accusing justice to exert pressure on medical experts.