The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decided Thursday, May 19 not to condemn France for the death in 2014 of a detainee, killed by a gendarme after an attack during his transfer to court.
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“
The Constable acted in the honest belief that his colleague's life was in danger and that he sincerely believed that it was necessary to use armed force.
The sincerity and honesty of this conviction was not called into question during the investigation
,” said the judges of the Council of Europe judicial body in a press release.
In self-defense
In August 2014, during his transfer from the Strasbourg remand center to the Colmar court, this 23-year-old detainee, suspected of armed robbery, suddenly attacked the gendarme sitting with him in the back of the car. and tried to take his service weapon.
The gendarme who was driving had then stopped the vehicle on the emergency lane, then tried in vain to control the detainee with his defense stick, before using his firearm.
The gendarme benefited from a dismissal, the French justice considering that he was in a state of self-defense.
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The victim's parents seized the ECHR in 2018, believing that France would have violated Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, protecting the "
right to life
".
"
The decision to use the weapon was taken after warnings and when the other attempts to put an end to the aggression had failed
" and "
the danger incurred by the gendarmes was confirmed by the ballistic expertise
", underlined the judges who therefore considered unanimously that there had been "
no violation
" of this Article 2.
