French prosecutors call for the police to be charged with beating a black man

The Paris prosecutor's office has requested this Sunday that the four policemen involved in a violent beating of a black music producer that was recorded by a camera be charged.

The case has sparked a national outcry amid debate in France over a controversial security law that seeks to limit the filming of law enforcement officers.

The judicial decision is known, in fact, a day after the holding of massive demonstrations throughout the country against the regulations that, in the case of the capital, Paris, ended with some violent altercations that left material damage and several protesters and wounded officers.

The Paris prosecutor, Rémy Heitz, announced in a public appearance in the afternoon that the four agents involved have been transferred to the capital's judicial court, where they were taken into the custody of an investigating judge.

As he explained, his office has requested the imputation of the three agents who beat up the producer Michel Zecler on Saturday, November 21, for voluntary violence by a person who is the custodian of public authority, for group violence and with weapons, as well as for statements of character. racist, false testimony, violation of a domicile and voluntary degradation of private property.

They have also been asked to remain under provisional detention in view of the "seriousness of the offense and the importance of the damage caused", as well as to "avoid the risk of consultation between the perpetrators or pressure on the witnesses."

A fourth agent, suspected of being the one who threw a tear gas grenade to force Zecler and nine young people who were recording a song out of the music studio, faces charges of voluntary violence and degradation of property with risk of harm to people.

The prosecution has asked that he be placed under judicial control.

All the accused agents have been suspended since the facts became known last Thursday - after a news platform spread the images of the beating on social networks - and they risk being expelled from the body if they are found guilty, as has promised the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin.

According to the prosecutor, none of the agents had previously committed serious offenses, that is known.

The officers accused of beating Zecler on Saturday night have been questioned several times since last Thursday.

After trying to justify their violent action by alluding to Zecler's "attitude", who "resisted" his arrest in a particularly narrow place - the entrance to the studio -, they ended up by "admitting that the blows were not justified and that they mainly acted out of fear, ”Heitz explained.

The case has provoked a strong reaction in a France that already last summer took to the streets to protest the police violence as a result of the demonstrations in the United States after the death of the African American George Floyd during his arrest by a white policeman.

Social unrest has worsened since the first reading approval last week of a controversial Global Security law.

What generates the most rejection is Article 24, which provides penalties of up to one year in prison and a 45,000 euro fine for disseminating images of policemen or gendarmes with the intention of harming them.

On Saturday, tens of thousands of people (133,000 according to the Interior Ministry, up to half a million according to the organizers) marched throughout France demanding the withdrawal of a regulation that the Government has promised to review, but not - for now at the minus - to delete.

The demonstrations had been called by unions and journalists' associations, as well as human rights organizations, among others, and were attended by the leaders of the main left-wing parties, as well as union representatives and various personalities.

The most popular was the demonstration in Paris - 46,000 participants according to the Interior, up to 200,000 according to the organizers - which took place from the Place de la République to the Place de la Bastille, where small groups of hooded men carried out violent actions at the end of the march - destruction of premises and street furniture - which were repressed by the police, who fired tear gas and used water cannons to disperse the violent.

As reported this Sunday Interior, 23 policemen and gendarmes were injured in Paris - some televisions showed how a group of agents was cornered by protesters, who gave them violent blows and kicks while they tried to withdraw - and 39 more in other parts of the country.

In all, there were 81 arrests.

For its part, the Agence France Presse requested this Sunday that a police investigation be opened after one of its collaborators, the Syrian photographer Ameer al Halbi, was seriously injured in the face by a "thump" during the Paris demonstration, according to Reporters Without Borders also denounced, which described the fact as "unacceptable."

In a message from his Instagram account, Michel Zecler, who according to Franceinfo contacted the Elysee on Saturday to find out how he was and to tell him that "what he has experienced is a shame", asked that his case not be used to provoke new violence.

“I feel that my case is possibly, for many, the last straw.

I ask that no violence be committed in my name, ”he wrote.