A French policeman was charged Thursday with premeditated murder and placed in pre-trial detention two days after the death, near Paris, of a teenager in Nahel, leading to two nights of violence in France and Thursday’s white march, which ended in chaos. and conflicts.
A march to pay tribute to the 17-year-old started around 2:00 pm local time in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine department, west of Paris), where he died, shot in the chest by a police officer. .
The victim’s mother, in a van, wearing a “Justice for Nahel” shirt, opened the march, which drew 6,200 people, a police source said. They went to the scene of the tragedy to observe a minute’s silence.
But the demonstration ended in chaos, with clashes, tear gas and fireworks, a few fires and the destruction of street furniture. AFP reported that several cars were set on fire.
In the morning, the public prosecutor of Nanterre Pascal Brachy announced that the policeman, a 38-year-old motorcyclist, would appear before two investigating magistrates during the day in view of his indictment.
In the morning, the public prosecutor of Nanterre Pascal Prache announced that the 38-year-old motorcyclist would appear before two investigating magistrates in view of his indictment, the public prosecutor’s office said ” legal conditions for the use of weapons [n’étaient] Not met”.
“The police officer referred to today as part of a judicial investigation for intentional homicide has been charged with this count and placed in pre-trial detention,” the public prosecutor’s office said later.
“false statements”
The family’s lawyer, Yassin Bousro, said the public prosecutor “concealed possible complicity in the voluntary killing of the second policeman and possible fraud in public records as a result of initial false statements by the shooter, who formally confirmed that the youth. Nahel tried to run him over with a vehicle.”
According to a video authorized by AFP, one of the two police officers held Nahal at gunpoint and then shot him at point-blank range.
His death was followed by an outbreak of violence, particularly in the Paris region, which escalated overnight from Wednesday to Thursday.
In front of the facades of town halls charred by flames, the stench of burning, the charred corpses of cars wafting across several cities in France in the early hours of the morning, President Emmanuel Macron condemned the “unjustified” violence against “institutions and the republic”. .
Schools, media libraries and police stations and buses in the Paris region were targeted.
In response to this situation, a town in Hauts-de-Seine, Clamart, announced the establishment of a curfew from 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. from Thursday to Monday morning.
In addition, overnight destination buses and trams throughout the Paris region, Wednesday through Thursday, will stop running from 9:00 p.m. on Thursday.
“Let it stop”
The head of state convened an interim crisis unit in the morning to avoid a repeat of the riots that erupted in working-class neighborhoods in November 2005, after two young men were electrocuted while hiding in a transformer. From the police.
The government assured that inducing a state of emergency, as called for by some voices on the right, was “not an option under consideration today”.
Gérald Darmanin announced the mobilization of 40,000 police on Thursday evening, including 5,000 in Paris (against 2,000 last night).
“All this has to stop,” said Justice Minister Eric Dupont-Moretti, visiting a prison in the Paris region that was attacked with fireworks by masked men.
When the police searched the car driven by Naheel, who was known for refusing to comply, tragedy struck at the appearance of the conflict. The prosecution briefed him last Sunday with a view to summoning him before the juvenile court in September.
The case has reignited controversy over law enforcement action in France, where 13 deaths were recorded in 2022 after refusing to comply.
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