Five and six months suspended prison sentences were requested on Friday in Marseille against two police officers for violence against two young demonstrators during the dispersal of a procession, on the sidelines of the fight against the pension reform project in 2023.
“The use of force is completely justified to disperse a crowd, but its use is disproportionate
,” said Sylvie Odier, deputy prosecutor at the Marseille judicial court, denouncing
“illegitimate violence”
.
“Certainly, this is not a totally gratuitous and unjustified attack
,” she said, “but this is too much, it’s too much
.
”
On March 28, 2023, around 8 p.m., around 300 people demonstrated near Saint-Charles station, a parade punctuated by damage to street furniture, trash fires and the throwing of projectiles at the thirty or so mobilized police officers.
“We must obey”
While the summons to disperse had been issued, a young couple had been violently intercepted. The two police officers do not deny having used their shield and their police baton
“in the soft parts of the body”
to arrest the young man and the young girl, holding a megaphone.
“We only act on orders and when we shout 'Move back! Nobody passes!'', you have to obey
,” explained one of the defendants.
According to Sylvie Odier, the couple was not part of the
“hard core”
of the demonstration and
“they did not know that they did not have the right to pass”
when the police blocked their way. The two young civil parties expressed their feeling of having
“been exhausted”
, even though they had decided to return home.
One of the police officers, however, denies having hit the young woman on the top of the head. According to him, she injured herself by falling and hitting a wall. A four-centimeter open wound required six stitches.
Deliberated on May 31
But, according to the magistrate, supported by a medical certificate,
“there are more elements which suggest that she received a baton blow”
. A video on social networks led the IGPN and the prosecutor to consider that the use of force had been disproportionate. A kick while the two young people are on the ground was analyzed by Sylvie Odier as
“a gesture of exasperation, of irritation”
.
The drafting of an erroneous arrest report, drawn up by a police officer absent on the scene, also irritated the Marseille prosecutor's office. But no prosecution for forgery had been initiated, due to lack of intentional evidence. The two police officers only carried out orders, according to their lawyers, Me Julie Mulateri and Sandrine Pauzano, who requested their release. The judgment will be delivered on May 31.