To believe them, it would be " never seen ". Surrounded by indignant parents, three lawyers held a press conference on Sunday to denounce the police custody of twenty-five high school students, according to them " abusive " and massive, organized during the protest against the reform of the bac.
These adolescents, minors aged 15 to 17, were arrested between January 28 and February 7 near their schools in eastern Paris, in Gagny, Thiais or even Pantin. For " concealment of concrete blocks ", "obstruction of circulation ", " degradation " of a high school door, trash fires near their establishment or even voluntary violence, lists in Figaro Me Camille Vannier. After their police custody which lasted between ten and thirty hours and up to forty-eight hours for one of them, they were released. Many will notably have to perform repair tasks. The lawyers wrote a letter to the various prosecutors concerned asking for explanations on what they claim to be procedural irregularities.
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A dozen high school students could not be assisted by a lawyer at the start of their police custody, they denounce. It should also be pointed out that during the lawyers' strike, there was no organized ex-officio commission. Lack of combatants ... " The presence of a lawyer is compulsory for minors, but insurmountable in this case for the judicial police officer who signs a report of deficiency, " said Jacky Coulon, Secretary General of the Union magistrates' union (USM).
"Trash fire"
The " abnormal " length of these police custody could also be partly explained by the repeated phone calls from the police seeking to contact a lawyer. Admittedly, the three Parisian teenagers of the Ravel high school only " fed a garbage can " and the prosecutor finally decided to subject them to a simple measure of compensation. Did he deserve twenty-six hours in police custody, when the three teenagers had admitted the facts? The USM notes that the destruction of street furniture " by the act of a dangerous means " is not " harmless " and that this offense " is severely punished by the penal code ".
The lawyers are finally indignant that the police were able to " search " in the young people's laptops. Again " nothing unusual that we look for evidence of offenses in telephones ," says the magistrate. The young people and their supporters testified that they were put " under pressure " in the police stations, as if it were a question of " breaking the movement of protest against the reform of the bac ". Would there have been " directives " of systematic police custody and repression " from above ", as suggested by Me Lucie Simon?
At the USM, it should be remembered that the custody of minors, necessary for investigations, is not exceptional. And to consult archives on the subject, they are far from new. Several have been reported during each of the high school student movements of the past twenty years.
