Police violence in Marseille: student files complaint after 18 September demonstration
A student assaulted by police officers in Marseille during the strike on 18 September has filed a complaint. The video of the incident was viewed tens of millions of times.
Complaint filed after Marseille viral video
The young woman assaulted by police officers in Marseille during the social movement on 18 September filed a complaint on Wednesday, according to lefigaro.fr, citing her lawyer Me Thomas Hugues.
The student, in her twenties, filed a complaint against unknown defendants for "violence in a group" targeting "persons who hold the status of holders of public authority", Me Hugues specified to AFP.
The scene was filmed by AFPTV around 7 in the morning in the Joliette district. Small groups of protesters had gathered there, responding in particular to a call to block the headquarters of shipping company CMA-CGM, owned by billionaire Rodolphe Saadé, before being dispersed by law enforcement.
According to Me Hugues, the young woman "found herself isolated from the group of peaceful protesters and was sprayed with tear gas. She had it in her eyes, it blinded her, it destabilised her. And then she was assaulted." The video shows a police officer kicking her in the buttocks while she is already on the ground and telling her to "get out of here". A second officer pushes her, making her fall again, whilst she responds, visibly shaken, "sorry, sorry".
The images were shared by numerous French media outlets as well as by several left-wing political figures, and viewed several tens of millions of times on social networks, according to a count carried out by AFP the day after their release.
As of 19 September, the Marseille prosecutor's office had announced the opening of an investigation into "violence resulting in total incapacity to work of less than 8 days, committed by a person holding public authority and in a group". At the same time, the inter-departmental directorate of the national police (DIPN) had launched an internal investigation "to determine the circumstances of this intervention".
On 18 September, hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated throughout France following a call from unions, during a day of strikes and demonstrations intended to influence the government's budgetary choices.
Source: Google News MA — Crime (fr)