At the Assize Court of Seine-Saint-Denis,
The courtroom is crowded. Many plainclothes police officers and trade unionists took their places in the audience. They came to support their three former colleagues from the BST of Aulnay-sous-Bois, tried from this Tuesday before the Seine-Saint-Denis assizes for “intentional violence” with aggravating circumstances. The accused sit on chairs, facing the magistrates and jurors.
A few meters away, Théodore Luhaka, wrapped in his blue down jacket and surrounded by his family, sat behind his lawyer, Me Antoine Vey, on the civil parties’ bench. The 28-year-old young man, seriously injured during an identity check seven years ago, listens attentively to them stating their identity and commenting on the summary of the facts that the president, Jadis Pomeau, has just read.
Dark suit, glasses screwed on his nose, Marc-Antoine C., 34, is the main accused in the trial. It was he who delivered the telescopic baton blow which caused Theo’s sphincter to rupture. An injury from which he has irreversible after-effects. “I intervened to free my colleague who was in a very delicate situation in the context of a very difficult arrest, facing an individual who was rebelling,” he explains. The policeman claims to have only struck a blow “which was taught to me in school, which is legitimate and legal”. “Of course, the injury is distressing and I think about it every day, it’s a serious injury,” he breathes. Before expressing his “deep compassion towards” the young man.
Seven letters of congratulations
Clotilde D. met him a year after the events to carry out her personality survey. Questioned by video, she evokes the “very very positive” educational and professional career of the accused. “His professional choices have always focused on helping others: lifeguard, volunteer firefighter, then gendarmerie, police and firefighter school. He got the first two and turned to the police,” like his father, she points out. Originally from Pas-de-Calais, Marc-Antoine C. joined the Aulnay-sous-Bois police station in 2013. His colleagues describe this sports enthusiast “as an invested person”, “someone ambitious , respectful, calm.”
“I had the deep conviction that in this department, there was human misery, social distress, that I would be able to make myself useful,” says Marc-Antoine C.. Feeling “invested with a mission” to fight against “crime”, he spent four years in the 93, where he “learned more than some police officers in their entire career”. “We see that the reports are completely complimentary about you,” observes the president. The accused received seven letters of congratulations, including one signed by former Minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve. “I think I’m a square person,” he maintains. “I have always tried to do my job as best as I can and to report to my superiors. »
“Several victims” in this case
Then the accused releases what is on his heart. “With this affair,” he says, “I lost everything. I was not able to return to my home because I lived in Seine-Saint-Denis. I had to move. My move was made by relatives. I lost my profession. From one day to the next, you are treated with the worst label, that of a rapist. I don’t want to make millions. All I wanted was to be useful. With this affair, I narrowly escaped being placed in pre-trial detention. » But he has to “report every week to the police station in the town” where he grew up. Each time, he feels “shame”. Marc-Antoine C. has the feeling of having “served as a fuse so that the suburbs do not burn even more”. While awaiting the court’s verdict, he was assigned to “a computer correspondent support position”, far from the field.
For Marc-Antoine C., “there are several victims” in this case. Théo, “who was unintentionally injured”. But also himself and his two co-defendants, victims according to him of “media coverage, of political crucifixion”. “We are not bad guys and we find ourselves before a criminal court, with sentences that can be enormous,” he regrets, adding that he “suffered a lot”. “I think some people would have hanged themselves if they had experienced all that.” The accused was, in a way, relieved when the video of Théo’s arrest was broadcast in the media. “We clearly see that this case is not a story of salacious rape with police officers holding one man on the ground and another sodomizing him,” he maintains. Before saying: “I am not a rapist, I am not a criminal”.