Since Wednesday morning, eight people, presented by the Bordeaux prosecutor’s office as “ultra-right political activists”, have been in custody. They were arrested after the racist violence and insults that took place on the night of June 24 to 25, in the Saint-Michel district. The police had not been able to make any arrests that night because no one was present at the supposed place of the facts when they arrived. But videos had been taken by residents shocked by the events. In one of them, a group of about ten people attacks passers-by and residents, and one of them imitates the cries of a monkey.
The defendants “are in the process of being referred to the prosecution (this Friday) for a summons by report with placement under judicial supervision to appear on March 23, before the criminal court”, specifies to 20 minutes the Bordeaux Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Two of them already prosecuted after violence at the Pride March
The eight individuals are prosecuted for “violence aggravated by three circumstances (in a meeting, with a weapon, because of race) resulting in an ITT of less than eight days, violence in a meeting without incapacity and sexist insult in a meeting”, completes the prosecution. Two of them have already been summoned before the criminal court on April 7 for acts committed during the Pride March. One will be tried for “public insult due to sexual orientation” and the other for “violence with a weapon by destination not having resulted in incapacity for work”.
The association SOS Racism Gironde had described the xenophobic attacks that occurred this summer in Saint Michel, as “ratonnade”, and questioned the far-right group “Bordeaux Nationaliste”. The latter disputed the alleged facts during this “brawl”, in another press release dated July 9. Its members explained having “defended the victims of an attack” then having “themselves been attacked” and having “defended themselves”, recalls AFP.
In the absence of a complaint, the prosecution then decided to open an investigation, “in order to avoid the spread of erroneous and partial information”. On February 1, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin had announced the dissolution of the Bordeaux Nationalist group which “promotes a xenophobic ideology, calls for hatred and violence”. A dissolution requested by several local elected officials, including the mayor of Bordeaux Pierre Hurmic.