The prosecutor's office in Créteil (Val-de-Marne) on Tuesday June 28 requested a suspended prison sentence against four police officers for violence against two brothers, who had themselves called the police in 2012, in Vincennes.
These four police officers, who then belonged to the Anti-Crime Squad, are now officers or retired.
The prosecutor requested against them five months of suspended imprisonment, explaining this quantum by the seniority of the facts.
For the fifth defendant, a police trainee who did not belong to the BAC in 2012, the prosecutor preferred
to "let the court appreciate"
, without requesting a penalty.
The five asked, through their councils, for release.
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March 17, 2012 at 4:45 a.m. Brice, 31, calls the police to warn them of a conflict: a friend, who had had a heated argument with his girlfriend, is threatened by a tradesman brandishing a knife.
Brice also telephones his eldest, Franck.
By telephoning the police in the early morning of March 17, 2012 in Vincennes, the two brothers
"acted as citizens"
, according to the prosecutor, while the police reacted
"completely disproportionately"
to regard to them.
The two brothers say they tried to control the situation between their friend and the trader, while waiting for the arrival of the police, followed by a team from the Anti-Crime Squad (BAC) as reinforcements.
"I thought we were going to be congratulated"
but everything changed, according to them, when a policeman gave
"a punch"
to their friend, describes Franck.
"In two seconds"
, he and his brother, 34 and 31, are also handcuffed.
“We made sure that my fingers touched my forearms
,” says Franck again.
Medical findings will report a bone tearing and a broken vertebra.
21 days of ITT for Franck, 2 for Brice.
The causal link between the action of the police and these injuries is disputed by the defence.
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For the president of the correctional chamber,
"there are two phases"
in this scene:
"we go from a calm situation"
with the first police officers arriving on the spot
"to a situation where it goes in all directions"
with the arrival of the BAC.
"We go from calm to the Wild West,"
he said again, quoting a witness.
These police officers were in
"a tunnel effect"
, denounces the victims' lawyer, Arié Alimi.
One of the police officers, who is accused of blows with a telescopic baton, claims
"not to have had the information"
that the situation had already been brought under control, acting
"in a hurry"
thinking
“intervene for violence on a woman with a knife bearer”
.
This
“lack of communication”
and search for information on the part of the police is deplored by the prosecution.
For the police, whom the prosecution also accuses of tonfa blows and a strangulation key, the two brothers were virulent.
The purpose of the handcuffing
"was to freeze the situation so that there were no injuries on either side
," said one of them.
"It's not at all a horde that comes to hit someone"
, argues Laurent-Franck Liénard, a defense lawyer, for whom
"there is use of force, but no violence"
.
On March 17, 2012, the brothers were then uncuffed, without legal action.
A particularity
"not frequent"
noted by the president.
"Not even a summons, no outrage, no rebellion..."
, he notes.