An examining magistrate will examine the accusations of falsification of the investigation into the attack against burnt police officers in Viry-Châtillon (Essonne) in 2016. The Créteil public prosecutor's office on Thursday opened this judicial investigation against X for "forgery in writing public ”,“ judgment fraud ”and“ willful violence ”, all by“ person holding public authority ”.
These qualifications repeat those covered by four complaints that were filed by the defense of several young people, accusing the investigators of the departmental security of Essonne of having falsified the investigation to implicate them wrongly in the attack.
Read also Police officers burned in Viry-Chatillon: the murky methods of investigators pointed out after the appeal trial
On April 18, after a six-week closed-door appeal trial, the Paris Assize Court declared five of the 13 defendants guilty of attempted murder on police officers.
Three of them, sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment, appealed to the Supreme Court.
The court judged facts which had taken place almost five years earlier: on October 8, 2016, 16 people had attacked, some with Molotov cocktails, two police cars parked near the district of Grande Borne, a sensitive city of Essonne.
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Viry-Châtillon: two police cars attacked with a Molotov cocktail
The investigation was based on a lot of testimony
The assailants being masked, it was impossible to recognize them and the investigation was based on many testimonies, some of which contradicted each other, and telephone boundaries.
According to the joint complaint filed by masters Sarah Mauger-Poliak, Yaël Scemama and Michel Stansal, the investigators drafted the minutes "by modifying the meaning of the statements, by evading the protests of innocence, a large number of detailed explanations and without record the requests for verification of the elements proving the lack of involvement ”of their two clients, acquitted on appeal, one of whom was sentenced to 18 years at first instance.
Moreover, still according to this complaint, the key witness of the investigation did not "spontaneously" produce a "list of participants in the attack" as assured by the investigators.
Frédérick Petipermon, lawyer for one of the defendants sentenced to 18 years in prison on appeal and who also appealed to the Supreme Court, had already lodged two complaints in Évry, on February 26 and March 10, for "forgery in public writing" .
"You don't question a potential criminal by offering tea"
In an interview with Le Parisien in June, three police officers from the Departmental Security have defended themselves from these accusations: "one does not question a potential criminal by offering him tea", explains one of them.
“These young people have always dealt with the police, have had lawyers since their childhood, are not afraid of us.
You can imagine that we are not going to take the first answer at face value ”.
To read also "We are not safe from a new Viry-Chatillon": the police officers of Essonne fear other attacks by young people
"We can only welcome the opening of a judicial investigation to shed light on complex facts outside of any political pressure," responded Me Mauger-Poliak.
Asked by AFP, the investigators' lawyer did not respond immediately.