New suspicions of police violence in France led this Tuesday to the arrest of five agents of an elite French unit for the death of a 27-year-old man, in Marseille (south), outside the riots in early July.
Mohamed Bendriss, shot to death on the night of July 1-2 in Marseille (the second largest city in France), is so far the only fatality in this episode of urban violence, which broke out in various French cities for several days after the death of the young Nahel, at the end of June, at the hands of a policeman during a “stop operation” in Nanterre, on the outskirts of Paris.
A month later, the French Prosecutor’s Office considered it “probable” that the young man’s death had been “caused by a violent blow to the chest caused by the firing of a ‘Flash-Ball’ type projectile”, another designation for Defensive Bullet Launcher. or LBD.
The Marseille prosecutor’s office said it had summoned other police officers to be “heard as witnesses”.
In early July, when the center of Marseille was ravaged by vandalism and looting in protest of Nahel’s death, Mohamed Bendriss, 27, fell to his death while riding a motorcycle.
And it was during the autopsy of the body of this man, married, father of one child and whose widow is expecting a second child, that traces of what could have been the impact of an LBD were found on his chest.
On July 4, a judicial investigation was opened for “fatal blows with a weapon” and the French Judicial Police, as well as the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN), were entrusted with the police force.
“Mohamed’s family hopes that the police will be identified and prosecuted,” Arié Alimi, a lawyer for Bendriss’s wife, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency.
To date, few information had been released about the death of Mohamed Bendriss, as the case had been overshadowed by another that arose the same night as the riots, that of Hedi, in which violence against the police is also suspected.
The 22-year-old was also shot in the head with an LBD and beaten in Marseille, with part of his skull having to be removed.
On July 21, four police officers from the Marseille anti-crime squad were indicted in this process, which led to a riot in some police stations, with officers on sick leave or doing only minimal work.
Today, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin discreetly visited a police station in Marseille to speak with officers.
In total, during the riots, 31 investigations were opened by the IGPN, the police force, a police source told AFP.
Source: TSF
