About forty people, gathered at the call of a group of associations from working-class neighborhoods, demanded this Monday evening before the Nanterre court (Hauts-de-Seine) “amnesty” for people sentenced for their participation in the riots, noted an AFP journalist.
“We are there on the one hand, because Nahel died at the end of this street” on June 27, killed by a policeman during a roadside check, declared Hajar Amanzou, student at Nanterre and member of Unef. And on the other hand “to request amnesty” for those tried after being arrested during the riots following the death of the 17-year-old teenager.
Nearly 400 people incarcerated
Members of the Coordination of Defense Committees for working-class neighborhoods, at the origin of this rally, also denounced the arrests and the prison sentences handed down, describing them as “State violence” resulting, according to them, from of “systemic racism”.
Nahel’s death on June 27 set the country ablaze and triggered several nights of violence, ransacking of public buildings and looting in many cities in France. At the national level, more than 3,700 people have been placed in police custody and nearly 600 tried in immediate appearance, according to the Chancellery. Nearly 400 were incarcerated.
“The State must deign to hear us”
Several demonstrators also approached signs and T-shirts on Monday evening bearing, in addition to the name of Nahel, that of Adama Traoré, who died shortly after his arrest by the gendarmes in July 2016 north of Paris, or that of Alhoussein Camara, 19-year-old Guinean fatally shot by a police officer during a traffic check in mid-June in Charente.
“We are asking for a mea culpa from the state,” said Assetou Cissé. His brother Mahamadou was killed in December 2022 in Charleville-Mézières, facts for which an octogenarian neighbor was indicted. “We have to show that we are visible, because we want things to change,” she pleaded again. “The State must deign to listen to us. »