The three police officers indicted in the file of the death by asphyxiation of Cédric Chouviat in January 2020 will not be suspended, reveals Mediapart.
In a letter addressed to the Ministry of the Interior on December 10, 2020, the three lawyers of the family of Cédric Chouviat requested the suspension of these officials.
Last July, his relatives had already sent the same request to Emmanuel Macron.
"The presumption of innocence is not considered as an obstacle" to the implementation of this provisional measure taken, they justified in the letter, in particular when the behavior of officials is "contrary to the principles which must govern their mission. ".
The administration can decide to suspend an agent (for a period of four months, renewable once) even before an administrative investigation is triggered against him, recalls Mediapart.
And this, in parallel with a judicial inquiry.
"What more does it take than the death of a man?"
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But on June 21, 2021, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin sent them an inadmissibility, reports Francetvinfo.
In this letter addressed to the family of the delivery man, he underlines that the suspension of an official "has the sole purpose of protecting the service from the consequences of the behavior of one of its agents".
"What more does it take than the death of a man?"
Ask the lawyers.
The Minister also indicates that the suspension of a police officer is possible in the event of serious misconduct, namely a breach of his professional obligations or an offense.
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The first elements of the investigation could not establish that the officials had committed, during the arrest of Mr. Chouviat, a breach of their obligations such that it is likely to justify an update. gap in their service, ”he wrote.
However, the first elements of the investigation are damning for the officials. After having undergone a first choke key, Cédric Chouviat was pinned to the ground, on his stomach, with his helmet on his head, then handcuffed. The IGPN, in charge of the investigations, specifies that three of the four police officers put pressure on his back for a long time and that one of them "seemed to practice a rear strangulation on the occasion of which he had, at least once , exerted a traction on his throat ”, relates Mediapart.
During their hearings, the four police officers claim not to have heard the delivery man repeat "I'm suffocating" seven times.
Sound expertises are in progress, but "several elements, noted by the IGPN, already demonstrate the inconsistency of their allegations", notes the investigative journal.
The IGPN also wonders about the late arrival of rescue gestures, practiced, as the judges noted, "at the end of a relatively long period of floating", despite "the state of distress ( …) Quite obvious ”from Mr. Chouviat.
"Culture of denial"
For the lawyers of Cédric Chouviat's family, the words used in the ministry's letter "cultivate a culture of denial".
In their response dated July 29, 2021, they deplore that Gerald Darmanin "ignores the extreme seriousness of the facts" and evoke "the denial of the reality of this case" and "the cruel disdain" for the relatives of the delivery man.
On January 3, 2020, Cédric Chouviat, a 42-year-old scooter delivery man, suffered from a heart attack in Paris after being pinned to the ground after a tense roadside check, filmed by a fourth police officer.
Taken in critical condition to hospital, he died on January 5 from asphyxia with fractured larynx.
Entrusted to the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN), the investigation in July 2020 led the investigating judges to indict three police officers for "manslaughter". The fourth agent, who originated the video, was placed under the status of assisted witness.