A YouTuber is to be tried in January in Paris for insulting a black police officer, treated as a "
sold
" during a demonstration in June for Adama Traoré, a young black man who died in 2016 during an arrest, AFP learned on Thursday November 5 from sources familiar with the matter.
The Paris public prosecutor's office decided to have this woman tried on January 6 before the 17th correctional chamber of the Paris court for "
aggravated contempt towards a person holding public authority
", following the civil servant's complaint.
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This is Nadjélika, a YouTuber who came to the demonstration and who keeps a video diary followed by nearly 600,000 subscribers, according to one of these sources.
During the trial, "
we will defend the right to demonstrate, the right to express oneself politically in a demonstration, which was intended to challenge, on the one hand, police violence and, on the other hand, systemic discrimination against minorities in France.
», Reacted to AFP his lawyer, Me Arié Alimi.
On a video widely resumed on social networks, the policeman, member of the DOPC (public order and traffic department) of the Paris police headquarters was in a helmet and masked in front of demonstrators chanting in chorus to his address: “
Sold!
".
“
Shame!
It's shame on you all, but especially on you!
Shame on you !
Sold!
You're on their side,
”the young woman cried, pointing her finger at the policeman, impassive.
The official was part of the staff who came to supervise on June 2 this demonstration in front of the Paris court, banned for health reasons and which had gathered some 20,000 people according to the prefecture.
"
This police officer will be a civil party to this hearing, his honor and his function having been soiled
" that day, reacted Wednesday his lawyers Mes Pascal Rouiller and Sandra Chirac Kollarik, joined by AFP.
To read also: A police officer treated as "sold" because black files a complaint
The prefect of police Didier Lallement had expressed his support for the police officer, announcing to join his complaint.
"
There is no race in the police, no more than racialized or racist oppressors
," the prefect wrote on Twitter.
The death on May 25 of George Floyd, a black American man killed by police in the United States, revived criticism in France against the police, accused of violence and racism.
Drawing a parallel between the two cases, the Adama Traoré committee organized this demonstration to demand the indictment of the gendarmes who had arrested the young man.
The latter were exonerated by several legal expertises, strongly contested by the Traoré family and the experts they commissioned.
A few days after the rally in front of the Paris court, a black gendarme had in turn been treated as a “
dirty sell
” during a new demonstration against police violence, on the Champ de Mars in Paris.
The director general of the national gendarmerie (DGGN), Christian Rodriguez, then decided to take legal action.
