Six months suspended prison sentence were required Thursday against two police officers tried by the Paris Criminal Court for injuring a “yellow vest” by fire from a defense bullet launcher (LBD) during a demonstration February 2, 2019.
Christophe M., who was neither present at the hearing nor represented, had been injured in the lower part of the face and in the abdomen by two shots from LBD “six seconds apart” during this gathering at Place de la République in Paris. As the prosecutor noted, the many videos available show that if the victim’s behavior was “a little annoying”, that he “taunted” the police, “at no time is he seen committing violence against him. police forces ”.
The two accused police officers, Abdelkader S. and Mourad B., (the identities have been changed at the request of their lawyers, editor’s note), aged 42 and 39 respectively, belong to the Anti-Crime Brigade (BAC) of Paris, whose job is not to maintain order.
“LBD training takes about six hours. During training, a maximum of ten or fifteen cartridges are fired, ”Abdelkader S.
“Insurrectionary climate”
The police, who claimed to be “in an insurrectionary climate” during the events, were neither trained nor equipped to maintain order. One wore his helmet and motorcycle jacket to protect himself, the other had “a roller-skating helmet”, his face uncovered “without a visor”.
Abdelkader S. said he never intended to target the protester. “I was aiming for a barricade which served as a refuge for individuals who were stoning us,” he said. “In no case did I have (the victim) in my sights.” “We were under the jets of projectiles,” he added. Of Moroccan origin, he said he had suffered racist insults from the demonstrators: “dirty Arab, sold”.
The other policeman, of Algerian origin, admitted to having targeted the victim at the level of the abdomen. “He was advancing towards us in a determined fashion with clearly belligerent intentions. I had to make my decision (to shoot) in half a second to protect myself and my colleagues, ”he said.
“I am not a violent person. I believe that I have respected the law, ”insisted the official. On a Twitter account, Christophe M. claimed to have received “2 flashball shots”, one “in the head” and “one in the stomach”. “I was less than 10m away, I was passive,” he assured.
Contacted by AFP at the time of the events, Christophe M. then defined himself as a radical “nationalist” and specified that he was the owner of various accounts on social networks on which appear anti-Semitic messages. The court’s decision was reserved for December 16.