Frédéric Veaux said he was in favor on Sunday of the release of the BAC agent detained as part of an investigation into police violence. Statements that provoke the indignation of elected representatives of the opposition and magistrates.
“Knowing in prison keeps me awake.” The Director General of the National Police (DGPN), Frédéric Veaux, spoke out on Sunday July 23 for the release of the Marseille BAC policeman placed in pre-trial detention as part of an investigation into suspicions of police violence committed on the sidelines of the riots in early July. On Twitter, the prefect of police of Paris, Laurent Nuñez said “share the words of the DGPN”.
A position that provoked the ire of elected representatives of the opposition and unions of magistrates, denouncing an attack on the independence of justice. From New Caledonia where he is on the move, Emmanuel Macron recalled on Monday that “No one in the Republic is above the law”. Franceinfo takes stock.
A Marseille BAC policeman imprisoned on suspicion of police violence
Four Marseille BAC police officers were indicted on Thursday for “willful violence resulting in an ITT of more than eight days”, aggravated by three circumstances, since they were “committed in a meeting, with the use or threat of a weapon” and by “person holding public authority in the exercise of their functions”, specified the Marseille prosecutor’s office. Three of them were placed under judicial supervision and released with a ban on practicing, and the fourth was placed in pre-trial detention in the Aix-Luynes penitentiary center.
Officials are suspected of police violence against a 21-year-old young man on the night of July 1 to 2 in Marseille, on the sidelines of the riots that occurred after the death of young Nahel in Nanterre. The victim, Hedi, said that he had simply come to Marseilles to party with a friend when the police came “rushed on them” around 2 a.m. His lawyer, Jacques Preziosi, specifies that his client does not have a criminal record and that he “received punches, kicks, has a broken jaw and left eye that no longer sees”, quotes France 3 Provence-Alpes Côte d’Azur.
“I remember their truncheon, their shelled gloves and their service weapon at the waist”, Hedi told Mediapart. “I felt a huge thing in my skull that was burning me”, said the young man, who suffers from head trauma and a broken jaw.
The boss of the police denounces this incarceration
Asked by The Parisianthe director general of the national police (DGPN) was moved by the placement of the police officer in pre-trial detention: “Knowing in prison keeps me awake.” More generally, Frédéric Veaux “considers that before a possible trial, a police officer has no place in prison, even if he may have committed serious faults or errors in the course of his work”, out ofare “matters which concern probity or honesty”. For the DGPN, “when a policeman is in the exercise of his mission, we must admit that he can make errors of appreciation”.
Frédéric Veaux also called for “technical and legal means” be found so that the BAC policeman in Marseille “find freedom”.
“During the riots, the police often intervened in a context of total chaos. We cannot escape this context.”
Frédéric Veaux, director general of the national policeat the “Parisian”
On Twitter, the police union Alliance welcomed these statements. “A police officer in question has guarantees of representation and must always remain free when justice asks him to explain himself”, supported Fabien Vanhemelryck, its general secretary.
Guest of franceinfo, the national secretary of SGP Police FO, Jean-Christophe Couvy, assured that the police did not want “to be above the law” but defended the profession “very complicated” that they exercise. The union calls for the law to be changed and asks a specific status for the police “challenged or indicted”. On CNewsDavid Le Bars, secretary general of the Union of National Police Commissioners, said he supported “100%” the words of Frédéric Veaux and estimated that for a policeman, “It’s not his place to go to prison with thugs”.
Opposition elected officials and the judiciary condemn the remarks
In a joint press release, LFI, EELV and the PS warned: “This position taken by the highest police authority is extremely serious and worrying. It was made possible by the lack of reaction from the political authority after the publication of an unacceptable statement from the Alliance and Unsa Police unions declaring ‘waging war’ against the people of ‘harmful people’.”
“The alert is now maximum. If these behaviors, which directly challenge the independence of justice, are not punished, they will very quickly be outbid.”
LFI, EELV and the PSin a joint statement
The judicial unions have also defended the independence of the judiciary. “In wanting to put out a fire, Frédéric Veaux lights another. He continues to imply that we must oppose justice and the police as we work together”, declared to franceinfo Cécile Mamelin, vice-president of the Union of magistrates. The National Union of Magistracy also defended “a serious attempt at destabilization” of Justice. “The police, like the others, are subject to the criminal law“, reminded the secretary general of the National Union of the Judiciary, Nelly Bertrand, to franceinfo.
The Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSM), the body guaranteeing the independence of justice in France, recalled in a “focus” that justice was “the only legitimate authority to decide whether or not to place in pre-trial detention the persons presented to it”. The president of the Marseilles court, Olivier Leurent, for his part underlined that “Iindependence of justice [étai]t a constitutional principle and an essential guarantee in the rule of law”.
This is not the first time that representatives of the police have incriminated justice. In 2021, during a rally of police officers in front of the National Assembly, the general secretary of the Alliance union declared: “The problem of the police is justice!” But Frédéric Veaux’s words are new, according to CNRS research director Sebastian Roché. “The fact that the highest police officials relay and anticipate the wishes or proposals of the unions, we have never seen that under the Fifth Republic”, he claims, questioned on franceinfo. “In democracies, civil servants have a duty of impartiality and reserve. There, they cross the Rubicon.”
Gérald Darmanin lends his support, Emmanuel Macron delays
The entourage of Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin assured franceinfo that “the DGPN had the full confidence of the minister”. During his interview from New Caledonia on Monday, Emmanuel Macron clarified that he would not comment on the court decision concerning the Marseille BAC policeman. “The rule of law presupposes the presumption of innocence for everyone and respect for the law for everyone”. he pointed out. Emmanuel Macron said he understood “emotion” among the police who “felt they were facing the most extreme violence”while pointing out that “No one in the Republic is above the law.”
A formula taken over by the Keeper of the SealsEric Dupond-Moretti. “Justice must continue its work in serenity and in complete independence”, added the Minister of Justice on Twitter.