Assa Traoré, who has become an emblem of the fight against police violence since the death of her brother Adama in 2016, maintained on Thursday every word from the forum which earned her to be attacked for defamation by the gendarmes she accuses of being responsible of death.
Read also: Fine required against a police officer who described Adama Traoré as a "rapist"
"
It's a platform that I fully assume, 1000%,
" defended Assa Traoré, right at the helm. “
I'm just a sister who lost her brother and seeks justice,
” the 36-year-old continued. In July 2019, on the third anniversary of her brother's death, she published a column entitled "
J'accuse
" on the Facebook account of the collective La Vérité pour Adama, of which she is the leading figure. Assuming his nod to Émile Zola, Assa Traoré quotes the names of the three gendarmes and accuses them in an anaphora of “
having killed (his) brother Adama Traoré by crushing him with the weight of their bodies
”, “
of not not having rescued
”and“
for refusing to dismantle Adama Traoré by asserting that he was faking while he was dying
”.
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In the rest of the rostrum, she pinpoints a bunch of people involved in the investigation: forensic pathologists, public prosecutors of Paris and Pontoise at the time of the facts, investigating judges, etc.
"
I would rewrite it and extend it with the names of the people who will continue to hinder the manifestation of the truth in the death of my brother
", Assa Traoré maintained at the bar.
His brother, a young black man, died at the age of 24 in the Persan barracks almost two hours after his arrest in his town of Beaumont-sur-Oise (Val-d'Oise), after a chase on a hot day.
A "
personal animosity
"
Parisian investigating judges are trying to determine the causes of this death, relying on medical expertise whose conclusions differ on the responsibility of the gendarmes. "
Ms. Traoré is not satisfied by the judicial information and wants to substitute a media truth, his own
", rebuked Me Rodolphe Bosselut, lawyer for two gendarmes, believing that the platform reflected a "
personal animosity
". The rest of the pleadings of the civil parties, those of the defense and the requisitions will take place on Friday, before a decision at a later date. Before the hearing, his lawyer Me Yassine Bouzrou declared that he would plead the release. In February, Assa Traoré was sentenced in civil proceedings by the Paris Court of Appeal for violating the presumption of innocence of the gendarmes.