Souleymane is part of a group of seven people arrested Monday evening in Paris during a rally against pension reform. A recording made by one of them has already revealed intimidation and insults uttered by police officers from the motorized brigade.
Souleymane, the demonstrator assaulted and attacked Monday evening in Paris by BRAV-M police officers (brigades for the repression of motorized violent action) testifies this Saturday exclusively on franceinfo. He denounces in particular a sexual assault of which he was the victim during his arrest with other demonstrators on the sidelines of spontaneous rallies against the pension reform.
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The scene takes place before the 20-minute long recording begins, to which franceinfo had access. “At the time of palpation [le policier] searched me and then he grabbed me by the sex, I can say it like that”, denounces Souleymane. And in the process, “he said to me ‘you don’t even have balls’, very sexist remarks”, he adds.
Souleymane, 23, assures us that it was this same policeman who made other comments with a sexual and sexist connotation to him that we hear in the recording. “You know, I can come sleep with you if you want…”can we hear the official say. “Well, here we go”, quickly answers the young man. The policeman continues: “And it’s the first one who has a hard-on who buggers the other”.
Souleymane says to himself “humbled” And “hit” by these behaviors and violence. “I made the mistake of going to demonstrate”, he even comes to say. For now, “by fear”he assures that he does not want to file a complaint against the policeman.
“Just because I was smiling, he was slapping me”
This protester also recounts how it all started on Monday night: “We were at the demonstration in Bastille. Afterwards, the police started gassing, chasing everyone. We went to the 3rd arrondissement. And there, we found ourselves face to face with the police, there were 4 of us. or 5, we had done nothing”. It was then that the palpation began during which Souleymane denounced the sexual assault. Then when the recording starts, the police “started asking me ‘What are you doing? Why did you go out tonight?’, and remarks and teasing”. According to Souleymane, a 23-year-old Chadian who says he has his residence permit in order, the police acted this way because of his skin color. He was the only black man in the group of protesters.
“I felt a real difference, we were all shocked to see how [les policiers] behaved with me”, he remembers. The demonstrator says that the police tried to hide their actions. “There was an inhabitant who was filming in height, so [le policier] asked his colleagues to block so that the resident could not film, says Souleymane. The policeman stood in front of me and started insulting me. Just because I was smiling, he was slapping me”. Souleymane explains that he smiled “to calm the situation” and not to provoke, he assures.
A night in custody
Then comes the sequence where a police officer makes xenophobic remarks, threatening Souleymane with expulsion from French territory. “Even if I am a foreigner and I have a residence permit, I have the right to a pension so I can go and demonstrate for the pension for which I contribute”defends the young man who works in the restoration.
Souleymane explains that after the recording, he and the other people arrested were taken to various police stations in Paris and the inner suburbs. He spent his police custody in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis). He was released, without charges against him, at noon the next day. He also says that it was in the police bus that the group exchanged and that all were able for the first time to listen to the recording that one of them had just made.