A young black man died in the courtyard of a gendarmerie, three nights of riots, shooting at the police.
The Assize Court of Val-d'Oise judges from Monday the urban violence that broke out after the death of Adama Traoré in July 2016.
To read also: Adama Traoré: death due to a "heat stroke", "aggravated" by the maneuvers of the gendarmes
Four men including Bagui Traoré, alleged order giver, are accused of attempted murder in an organized gang for shooting guns amid the street clashes that followed the death of his brother Adama Traoré at the Persan barracks , a small town located about thirty kilometers north of Paris.
In this peripheral file of this case which has become an emblematic cause of the fight against "police violence", the companion of Bagui Traoré also appears before the Assize Court presided over by the former anti-terrorism judge Marc Trévidic, for complicity and subornation of witnesses.
The five defendants face life imprisonment.
Violent riots
In front of them during three weeks of hearing, nearly 70 members of the security forces became civil parties, some wounded during the nights of riots which raged from July 19 to 23, 2016 in the communes of Persian and Beaumont-sur-Oise.
Incarcerated since 2016, Bagui Traoré “
is locked up because he is Adama's brother.
When you see the file, there is nothing against him.
Nearly 80 civil parties, it's a masquerade!
", Told AFP his sister Assa Traoré, who will testify at the bar.
Central figure of the trial, the 29-year-old man has already been convicted on multiple occasions, in particular for drug trafficking and acts of violence.
Contacted by AFP, his lawyers Florian Lastelle and Frank Berton did not wish to speak.
According to the prosecution, he organized the attacks against the police after the death of his brother, assisted by his partner.
“
Everything went through Bagui,
” said during an interrogation one of the three other defendants, suspected of having used firearms.
Shots and concrete throwing at the gendarmes
On July 19, 2016, Adama Traoré, 24, died nearly two hours after his arrest after a chase, on a hot day.
Five years later, investigating judges are still trying to determine the precise causes of his death and the possible responsibility of the gendarmes, not indicted at this stage.
Around 22:00, in a climate of extreme tension, the death of the young man is announced to his family.
The news sets fire to the powder.
Individuals attack the gendarmerie and try to enter by force.
Faced with the degenerating situation, many reinforcements were dispatched to the site.
The families of the local gendarmes are evacuated urgently, for fear of reprisals.
In the district of Beaumont-sur-Oise where the Traoré siblings reside, vehicles and garbage cans are set on fire.
The police wipe the jets of concrete blocks, bottles, gasoline cans.
Shots clatter, sprays of lead crash into the gendarmes' bulletproof protections.
The clashes are so violent that the gendarmes, having identified the exact origin of some shots, even ask for permission to use lethal weapons to retaliate.
Authorization refused.
Called in as reinforcements, the GIGN intervenes with armored vehicles and brings calm to the early hours.
Two more nights of unrest followed, but of lesser intensity.
During the investigation, the gendarmes will be part of an “
urban guerrilla
” of an “
unprecedented
”
level of violence
.
"
I did not think that in France we could be turned on like rabbits
", confided a officer who fought in the war in Afghanistan.
"
Nothing justifies setting a city to fire and blood, shooting at the gendarmes, the police, men and women who have chosen to be at the service of citizens and public peace, no serve as targets,
”said Caty Richard, a victim lawyer, to AFP. The verdict is expected around July 8.