Outrage against police officers in Marseille: LFI deputy Delogu summoned to court
Sébastien Delogu was held in police custody for more than eight hours following an altercation with three police officers in his Marseille building. Summoned to court on 13 November, he has also filed a complaint against an unidentified party.
LFI deputy Delogu facing justice after altercation with police officers in Marseille
According to France Info, La France insoumise deputy for Marseille, Sébastien Delogu, is summoned to appear before Marseille's magistrates' court on 13 November for the offence of "outrage against a person vested with public authority". He had been held in police custody for more than eight hours on Thursday 27 August before being released.
The Marseille public prosecutor's office confirmed the parliamentary detention "as part of the investigation initiated under flagrante delicto procedures for outrage against a person vested with public authority". The use of flagrante delicto procedures dispenses magistrates from seeking a lifting of parliamentary immunity.
An altercation in the deputy's building
The incident dates back to the Monday before, around 15:15. Three plain-clothes police officers, searching for a man suspected of watch theft, attempted to enter the building where Delogu lives. The deputy encountered them as he was returning home. Claiming the officers had not identified themselves, he refused to let them in.
The situation escalated moments later on the landing of the deputy's apartment, which is situated opposite that of the man being sought. Sébastien Delogu provided the media with partial video recordings of the incident, in which he asks the police officers to show their "badge". In one of the videos, relayed notably by L'Humanité, an officer can be seen closing the door on the deputy whilst calling him an "arsehole".
Contradictory accounts
The deputy told the AFP: "A person in civilian clothes whom I do not know orders me to leave the door open. I do not know this person, I do not trust them because I have already been threatened, so I refuse to leave it open." He also claims that an officer told him "you stink" and struck him "a blow to the chest".
His lawyer, Yonès Taguelmint, told RMC: "Monsieur Delogu is regularly threatened. It is normal that he should be concerned to see three people outside his residence wanting to enter it."
For their part, the police officers maintain that the deputy opposed them "physically" from entering the building and called them a "bunch of tired people" or, for one officer, an "arsehole". "He had clearly identified that we were police officers", the officers state in the intervention report consulted by RMC.
Suspicion of obstructing an investigation
The officers claim to have had earlier contact with the parliamentarian by telephone that day. According to their statements, Delogu subsequently admitted to the police that he had warned the suspect that police were searching for him—something one of the officers describes as "obstructing a police investigation".
The altercation nonetheless had an unexpected conclusion: the deputy "shouted so loudly that the person in question opened his apartment door and invited us in", one of the officers stated during their interview. The suspect was then arrested without difficulty.
Cross-complaints and ministerial response
Following the incident, the three officers filed a complaint against Sébastien Delogu. In return, the deputy filed a complaint against an unidentified party for insults and physical violence.
The Interior Minister, Laurent Nuñez, responded on social media platform X, expressing his "support for the police", whilst emphasising that the investigation should determine the exact circumstances of the altercation.
Source: France Info