The Paris Assize Court judges from Tuesday March 2, on appeal, thirteen young men accused of having injured four police officers in 2016, by setting their cars on fire with the jet of Molotov cocktails, in a sensitive area of Essonne .
The new trial of this case, which had had a very strong media and political impact, is to last six weeks.
He is standing in front of the juvenile assize court since three of the accused were under 18 at the time of the facts.
At the opening, the court will determine whether the proceedings are held in camera, as in first instance.
Read also: Police officers attacked in Viry-Châtillon: the reasons for the verdict
The accused of this violent attack were between 16 and 21 years old at the time of the facts.
During the first trial, the prosecution requested a conviction for the thirteen and called for sentences ranging from 20 to 30 years of criminal imprisonment.
At the end of the first trial in December 2019, eight defendants were found guilty of attempted murder on persons holding public authority and sentenced to terms of 10 to 20 years imprisonment by the Assize Court of Minors of Essonne.
Five had been released.
The Paris general prosecutor's office had appealed against the verdict.
Police officers on fire
On October 8, 2016, in broad daylight in Viry-Châtillon, twenty young people stormed two police cars parked near the Grande Borne district, a vast social housing city with thousands of homes, considered to be one of the most sensitive in Île-de-France.
In a few seconds, they smash the windows and throw Molotov cocktails into the cockpit.
In a first car, the two front seats ignite.
A 28-year-old security assistant and a 39-year-old female peacekeeper catch fire.
To read also: Viry-Châtillon: behind closed doors for the trial of an ambush
The vital prognosis of one of the four policemen had been engaged for a time and he had been plunged into a coma for several weeks.
Her colleague had been hit by stones when she got out of the torch-turned car, while her upper body was on fire.
"
I have children, help me
", had heard him say one of his alleged attackers, who had confided later to a friend that it had made "
a pang in his heart
".
The two officers managed to extricate themselves from the other car, as a Molotov cocktail fell in the back seat.
They had been hurt more slightly.
Debates "less anesthetized by emotion"
The entire political class was moved, President François Hollande then denouncing an "
unspeakable and intolerable
"
aggression
and demanding "
a penalty commensurate with the gravity
" of the act.
"
These are among the most serious facts against the police in recent years, facts of incredible savagery
", told AFP Me Thibault de Montbrial, the lawyer of a policewoman taken for target.
Lawyers for the civil parties described the verdict as "
incomprehensible
" and "
disturbing
".
On the defense side, Me Arnaud Simonard (whose client had been acquitted) believes that more than four years after the events, "
there will be a different approach
" from that of the first trial.
"
The fact that it is judged in Paris and no longer in Essonne, with a longer period, will allow debates less anesthetized by emotion and more serene and technical,
" said this lawyer, promising a "
more combative defense
".
To read also: Policemen burned alive in Viry-Châtillon: "The weakness of the sentences is a message of laxity"
According to the investigation, the young people, friends who are members of a band from the Grande Borne, had planned for a few days to "
fuck the cops
".
The defendants denied, some recognizing a minimum presence of stones, but never Molotov cocktails.
"
The trial at first instance revealed as the proceedings progressed a certain number of anomalies in the investigation, in particular in the transcriptions of accusatory remarks
", assures Me Simonard for the defense.
The verdict is expected on April 16.
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