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France He has been rocked by more than a week of riots that began last month over the killing of a 17-year-old Nahl m. By a policeman during a traffic check outside Paris. The officer was charged and jailed before trial.
In the incident in Marseille, a man named El Hedi, 21, said he was beaten by four or five men he described as policemen during unrest in the city over the death of Nael M. earlier this month.
He also said that he was hit in the head by the explosion of a ball fired by the police. He underwent surgery and is now back home but risks losing sight in one eye, according to his lawyer.
Four policemen were charged last week in the incident, and one was placed in pre-trial detention.
“Knowing that he is in prison prevents me from sleeping,” French national police chief Frederic Foux said in an interview with Le Parisien newspaper published on Monday.
“In general, I believe that prior to a possible trial, a police officer should not be in prison, even if he has made mistakes or serious mistakes in the course of his work,” he added.
The Paris police chief, Laurent Nunez, tweeted that he shared Vaux’s position.
In an interview with French television, Mr. President Emmanuel Macron On Monday, he said he understood the “feelings” of the police after the recent riots, stressing that “no one in the republic is above the law.”
Asked about Fu’s remarks, Macron avoided giving a direct reaction. “It (the policeman’s imprisonment) is a decision made by the judge, so I will not comment on it,” he added.
According to a union source, who asked not to be named, several hundred Marseille police officers went on sick leave in a sign of protest against the officer’s detention.
Others have responded to the call of the SGP Police Unit union and placed themselves under what is called “Code 562” which means they only respond to emergency and essential tasks.
But in a rare public intervention, the chief judge of Marseille, Olivier Laurent, urged in a statement to “restraint so that the judiciary can continue the investigation … without pressure and with complete integrity.”
Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the far-left “France Unbweed” party, said France’s leaders had rejected the police’s call to “respect the law” and had instead given the green light to “wage war”.
“It is very dangerous, the entire police hierarchy puts itself above justice and the rules of pre-trial detention,” added Socialist Party chief Olivier Faure.
“What is at stake here is democracy and respect for the rule of law. Parliament must be reconvened urgently,” he added.
Cecile Mamelin, vice president of the magistrates’ union, said the national police chief’s words were “scandalous” and “extremely dangerous in a state of law”.
The conduct of the French police, which critics have accused of institutional racism, was under scrutiny even before Nael M.’s death.
French prosecutors also opened an investigation into an online group of the French policeman who killed Nahil M., which had received pledges of more than 1.6 million euros ($1.7 million) before it was shut down in early July.
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