Three Paris police officers in court: brutal beating of music producer in 2020
Six years after the attack on Michel Zecler, three Paris officers must answer charges of aggravated assault. They face up to 15 years in prison.
Trial begins in Paris: police officers beat music producer
Six years after a high-profile case of police brutality in France, three officers have been in court in Paris since Monday this week. According to Kleine Zeitung, they are facing charges of aggravated assault, trespassing and criminal damage.
At the centre of the case is the attack on music producer Michel Zecler on 21 November 2020 in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. The three police officers are said to have initially stopped Zecler on the street because he was not wearing a coronavirus mask – which was mandatory at that time. They subsequently followed him into his nearby music studio and repeatedly beat him there.
Surveillance camera documents incident
A private security camera recorded the incident over approximately eight and a half minutes. The footage shows the officers forcing Zecler into the studio entrance and attacking him as a group of three. "I always told myself: if you fall to the ground now, you stay there. Then you won't get back up," Zecler told the magazine Loopsider, which published the footage. With support from musicians in the studio basement, he eventually managed to force the officers out of the building. Shortly afterwards, the police threw a tear gas cartridge into the studio.
The officers initially claimed that Zecler had attacked them. The video footage refuted this account. The public prosecutor's office launched an investigation, and all three police officers were suspended. The then interior minister Gérald Darmanin said they had "tarnished the uniform of the Republic".
Racist insults not part of the charges
Zecler, who is Black, also alleged at the time that the officers had made racist insults. However, this charge is not part of the current proceedings. The three defendants, who are under judicial supervision, face up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to €225,000 if convicted.
Broader debate over police brutality in France
The case triggered an intense debate in France about police brutality – reaching all the way to the Élysée Palace. Time and again, officers in the country are recorded on video committing violent assaults, including during recent mass protests.
President Emmanuel Macron launched a consultation process in 2021 with police unions, citizens and politicians. This resulted in measures such as increased staffing, longer training periods and limited opening of the internal police oversight body IGPN to external members. However, a fundamental reform of the police did not materialise.
The French human rights commission CNCDH found in 2023 that many of its recommendations for restoring trust between police and the public had gone unanswered. In the same year, the French state council acknowledged that discriminatory police checks based on physical appearance occur and are not isolated cases – but saw no evidence of a systemic phenomenon. The UN Human Rights Committee again expressed concern in 2024 over racist checks and called on France to take countermeasures.
Source: Kleine Zeitung