Three years later, justice has yet to be served. Zineb Redouane, 80, died on December 2, 2018 in Marseille hospital, after being hit by a tear gas grenade fired by a CRS. The octogenarian was at home, on the fourth floor of a building at the foot of which paraded “yellow vests”. While the judicial investigation continues, franceinfo summarizes the main elements of the procedure.
Act 1: Zineb Redouane dies in hospital, legal proceedings are open
On December 1, 2018, Zineb Redouane, 80, is in his apartment on the fourth floor of 12 rue des Feuillants, in the popular Noailles district, in Marseille. Opposite his home, the Canebière, which flames up on that day. This is the third day of mobilization of “yellow vests”. Garbage cans are burning and demonstrators clash with the police. The procession meets another, that of the Collective of November 5, which protests against the unsanitary housing in the city after the collapse of two buildings in the rue d’Aubagne.
Around 7 p.m., Zineb Redouane is indisposed by the odors of tear gas that seep into her home as she prepares dinner. On the phone with her daughter Milfet, who lives in Algeria, the octogenarian and mother of six children is about to close her shutters when she is hit by a tear gas grenade. Severely injured in the face, Zineb Redouane also inhaled a large amount of tear gas, but she remains conscious after the shock. The firefighters, embarrassed by the demonstrations, struggle to pick her up, then transport her to the Conception hospital.
“At about 8 p.m. she called me from the hospital, she could still talk. She told me that there were two policemen in front of the C&A store and that they shot her.”
Sami, son of Zineb Redouaneto franceinfo
Zineb Redouane’s heart stops beating while she is on the operating table and anesthetized on December 2, 2018. A judicial investigation is opened on December 4 to determine the causes of her death.
Act 2: two autopsies deliver different conclusions
The day after Zineb Redouane’s death, the Marseille prosecutor, Xavier Tarabeux, first asserts that the octogenarian succumbed to “cardiac arrest on the operating table”. “At this stage, we cannot establish a causal link between the injury and the death”, he declares. However, he confirms the presence of tear gas canisters in the octogenarian’s apartment.
A first autopsy is performed at the request of the prosecution. It highlights “severe facial trauma with fractures”, as well as “rib fractures and acute pulmonary edema which would be the cause of death, after an attempt at resuscitation”. However, the two legal doctors of the CHU de la Timone concluded that only the study of the victim’s medical file “could determine with more precision the circumstances of the occurrence of the death”.
A second autopsy, the report of which is returned on December 25, is carried out in Algeria. “Because my mother was of Algerian nationality, the prosecutor in Algeria opened an investigation directly”, explains Sami, one of six children of Zineb Redouane, to franceinfo, three years after the facts. The report of this autopsy was published by Le Media on July 1, 2019. Algerian experts conclude that “significant facial trauma attributable to the impact of a non-penetrating projectile (…) which may correspond to a tear gas bullet”. “The importance of this trauma is directly responsible for the death by worsening of the previous condition of the deceased, despite the intensive care provided urgently”, further details the document.
Me Brice Grazzini, lawyer for Zineb Redouane’s son, assures Franceinfo that at the time he requested that the Algerian report be sent to the French judicial authorities, and that he attached it to the file, without knowing whether his request was successful . Me Grazzini specifies that it then remained necessary to identify exactly the conditions for carrying out this autopsy.
Act 3: the affair is disoriented to calm doubts
Over the months, Zineb Redouane’s family expressed doubts about the impartiality of the investigation. A first request for a change of scenery in the case is requested by the lawyer of the victim’s daughter, Me Yacine Bouzrou, in April 2019. A complaint is also filed for “forgery in public writings aggravated”, on July 5th. The relatives of the victim dispute the version of the IGPN which asserts that a surveillance camera was out of use on the day of the tragedy that affected Zineb Redouane.
After a first refusal in May, the general prosecutor’s office of Aix-en-Provence ended up asking, on June 14, for the change of scenery of the case for the “serenity” judicial information and “in the interest of the good administration of justice”. In his request, the Attorney General, Robert Gelli, notes that, according to two testimonies from CRS, the deputy prosecutor of the Marseille public prosecutor’s office was present at the scene of the demonstration on the day of Zineb Redouane’s death, as part of his duties. But this magistrate was responsible for the start of the investigation, until it was entrusted to a Marseille examining magistrate. What to call into question its impartiality, according to Me Bouzrou.
This magistrate “could be capable of providing useful information” on the facts and will likely be heard during the investigation, “even if its responsibility can in no case be sought”, underlines the Attorney General. On August 21, 2019, nine months after Zineb Redouane’s death, the Court of Cassation ordered the investigation to be moved to Lyon.
The Lyon public prosecutor’s office having to take cognizance of the entire file, the change of scenery contributes, according to the lawyer for the son of Zineb Redouane, to slowing down the legal proceedings.
“We downgraded four gears. The change of scenery had more of a media effect than a judicial one.”
Maître Brice Grazzini, lawyer for Sami Redouaneto franceinfo
Act 4: a ballistic report rules out the track of a “targeted shot”
On May 20, 2020, a ballistic expertise was rendered by a police officer registered with the Court of Cassation and a forensic doctor. It defends the idea that Zineb Redouane was not targeted by the policeman responsible for the shooting. The 70-plus-page report argues that “the weapon was used according to the recommendations and the employment procedures in force in the national police”. “The grenade struck the thorax of Madame Redouane, located at a height of over 16 meters and at a straight distance of about 37 meters”, write the authors again. “Taking into account the trajectory of the shot, we can see that it is a non-aimed shot, called ‘bell’, aimed in the air. It is impossible to see the destination of this shot which is out of scope. of the camera, but it is certain that the trajectory is ascending “, they still advance.
“Considering the shooting distance, the darkness and the tear gas emissions in the street, there is no argument to say that Madame Redouane could have been seen by the police officer when the shot was fired. of fire”, say the two experts again. The grenade “hit the victim completely accidentally, during the upward progression of the projectile”, concludes the report.
The policeman responsible for the shooting could in particular be spotted, but not identified, on the photographs of four cameras, the ballistic report further specifies. The five CRS group present on the scene that day were interviewed: none can be recognized on the CCTV images and none admits to being the author of the shooting.
Act 5: an independent analysis contradicts the version of the police
The investigation site Disclose publishes a video reconstruction of the facts, established from the ballistic report, CCTV images and 3D modeling, on November 30, 2020. By analyzing the scene in this way, the journalists conclude that Zineb Redouane has was killed by a tense shot, yet prohibited with a grenade launcher. Maître Yassine Bouzrou, lawyer for Milfet Redouane, tells franceinfo that he believes “that the police officer fired because he imagined that Madame Redouane, who was on the phone with her loudspeaker, was filming the police violence that was taking place below her house.”
This independent report, which questions the conclusions of the first ballistics report, is not on file. “It is a report which was not requested by justice, of which we do not know the authors, it is a sword in the water. It made a buzz but it is of no use in legal proceedings “, regrets Master Grazzini to franceinfo.
Act 6: revelations could revive the judicial component
In the fall of 2021, the case is still not closed. France Inter revealed, Saturday, October 30, that the author of the grenade fire was identified by the IGPN, confirming information from the book by journalist Frédéric Charpier, The IGPN, an institution above all suspicion.
The director general of the national police, Frédéric Veaux, refused to sanction the author of the shooting and his supervisor, France Inter still reveals. Frédéric Veaux believes that at nightfall, the noise, the smoke and the insurrectionary atmosphere of the demonstration of the “yellow vests” could explain the “lack of discernment” of the two agents. He decided to make them follow a compulsory continuing education course.
Frédéric Veaux therefore does not follow the opinion of the IGPN, which recommended sending the two CRS to a disciplinary council, according to information from France Inter. In her administrative report submitted the previous summer, the director of the General Inspectorate of the National Police, Brigitte Jullien, considered that the grenade firing was legal but “risky and unsuitable”.
Master Grazzini sees in the identification by the IGPN of the two CRS “good news”. Although the administrative investigation is now closed, the judicial investigation, conducted in Lyon, continues. Justice has not communicated on any possible indictment so far. The conclusions of the IGPN report were sent to the Lyon examining magistrate in charge of the case.