It is not one, but two judicial reports which threaten the former prefect of Paris Didier Lallement, within the framework of the proceedings concerning the management of demonstrations. After the investigation launched around the demonstration of November 16, 2019, a second investigation was opened, this time concerning the parade of July 14, 2019. This procedure follows the complaint of the former “yellow vest” Maxime Nicolle who denounces his “arbitrary detention” on the sidelines of this event, AFP learned Thursday from concordant sources.
These festivities had been marked in Paris by tensions, nearly 200 arrests as well as whistles addressed to Emmanuel Macron. Three figures of the movement of “yellow vests” started in November 2018, Eric Drouet, Jérôme Rodrigues and Maxime Nicolle, had been arrested and placed in custody, the first for “rebellion”, the others for “organization of an illicit demonstration “, before being released a few hours later.
“Targeted arrest”
After a first simple complaint without result, Maxime Nicolle filed a complaint in Paris with a civil action, which almost automatically leads to the appointment of an investigating judge. A magistrate was recently appointed to investigate this case, AFP recently learned from Maxime Nicolle’s lawyer, Me Juan Branco. The information was confirmed to AFP by a source familiar with the matter.
The “yellow vest” says that he went that day without a distinctive sign on the Champs-Elysées in Paris “to attend the festivities of July 14”, which had been the subject of an order aimed at avoiding any gathering of activists of this movement. He claims to have been the subject of a “targeted arrest” before his placement in police custody for “organization of a demonstration on the public highway having been prohibited”, a procedure closed in the afternoon by the public prosecutor’s office. Paris.
“Serious and illegal fact”
For him, “no element […] could not justify” this “political arrest aimed at [l’] to intimidate [le] stigmatize” and to ” [l’] prevent, without legal basis, from [se] go to the Champs-Élysées during the parade”. “This judicial investigation, the opening of which has been requested since 2019, will have to determine who, within the Elysée, the Ministry of the Interior and the Paris Police Prefecture, ordered and supervised the arbitrary arrest of Mr. Nicolle, a very serious and illegal fact, unfit for a democratic regime,” commented Me Branco. “The instrumentalization of law enforcement and the judiciary is unacceptable,” he stressed.
Another judicial investigation in Paris has recently targeted Didier Lallement, accused by two other figures of “yellow vests”, Priscillia Ludosky and Faouzi Lellouche, of having endangered them by “nassant” and prevented from demonstrating in Paris in November 2019.
The lawyer for the former police chief did not react immediately.