The Grenoble Court of Appeal (Isère) reduced from two years to two months the suspended prison sentence imposed on a police officer tried for violence committed in 2018 on a migrant in the Hautes-Alpes.
The defendant, a 51-year-old member of the Border Police (PAF), was sentenced on July 30, 2020, by the correctional court of Gap (Hautes-Alpes), to two years of suspended imprisonment for having threatened and violated a young Malian in August 2018. He appealed and at the hearing on April 28, the Advocate General requested a six-month suspended prison sentence, without claiming the additional sentence of prohibition to exercise also pronounced at first instance.
At the helm, the official based in Montgenèvre (Hautes-Alpes) at the time of the events claimed to have “energetically pushed back” the young man, “at shoulder level”, against a traffic sign.
At the time of the altercation, on the night of August 4 to 5, 2018, the young migrant complained that he had been punched in the stomach, then kicked, before dying. 'to be grabbed and pressed against the panel.
But he never formally recognized the defendant as his attacker.
An audio tape as an element
Accompanied by police that night at the Franco-Italian border with eleven other people, the migrant - then 16 years old - had decided to turn back to return to the police station, after realizing the absence from his wallet in his bag. While walking towards France, he had passed a PAF vehicle in which the defendant was. After accusing the police of the theft of the wallet, the tone rose between the two men. On an audio tape recorded by the young man with his phone, we hear the policeman threatening him, quite angry, before a great crash. "You stop calling me a thief or I'll stick one", we can hear in particular.
“I am quite confused by the questioning of my client's words. The audio recording is very clear. What the policeman did was to establish his authority in an untouchable posture. It evokes disgust to me, ”said Me Emma Eliakim, the young man's lawyer. “Its job is to be a bulwark against migrants crossing the border. His gesture is neither a criminal fault, nor an ethical one, had pleaded on his side Me Laurent-Franck Lienard, the lawyer of the police officer.