The police charge during which Geneviève Legay was seriously injured on March 23, 2019 in Nice during a prohibited demonstration of "
yellow vests
", was disproportionate due to "
unsuitable orders
", estimates the General Inspectorate of Police national (IGPN) in a report which AFP learned of Tuesday, September 22.
Read also: Legay affair: suspension in Nice of a police officer suspected of having informed Mediapart
The IGPN noted "
differences of appreciation
" in the field, on the day of the events, between the unit commanders and the operational manager of law and order, including "
the strategy adopted and the orders given (... ) are characterized by a lack of clarity and a directive aspect
”, according to these elements of the file which confirm information from
Mediapart
.
"
Unsuitable orders
", further underlines the IGPN, like that of the charge on Place Garibaldi then on Boulevard Jean-Jaurès where the demonstration was held, "
came immediately after the summons
" and launched "
directly to the workforce of the company departmental intervention
"without their direct manager"
did not have the time and the possibility to intervene
”.
The videos used "
prove
" the commanders of units who "
believe that a wave of repression carried out by marching, with the shields in the protective position, would have been a maneuver of an intensity proportional to the situation
", according to the IGPN.
"
However, we must be aware that this way of progressing might not have prevented the fall of Ms. Legay
", nuances the Inspection, adding that the police device on the day of the facts was "
legitimate
", in "
a sensitive context
".
“
Thrown to the ground
” by a policeman, Geneviève Legay, 73 years old and activist from Attac, suffered from a head trauma following her fall.
She was participating in a prohibited “
yellow vests
” demonstration
on the eve of a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The case had at the time had a strong resonance, fueled by the contradictory points of view of the authorities.
The Nice prosecutor, Jean-Michel Prêtre, had first denied any
physical
"
contact
" on the part of the police, remarks taken up by Emmanuel Macron.
Then the magistrate then admitted that she had been pushed by a police officer, following the exploitation of CCTV images.
Read also: Legay case: the embarrassing exit of the Nice prosecutor
The prosecutor has since been transferred to the Lyon Court of Appeal at the end of 2019 and the investigation into the violence, in which a police officer on the ground was indicted, was disoriented by the Court of Cassation in Lyon, where Ms. Legay, then recovering, was heard.
Since then, a policeman from the Alpes-Maritimes, suspected of having been the source of a Mediapart journalist in this affair, has been suspended.