The two 15-year-old girls were arrested after a demonstration against the “comprehensive security” law. One of them is indicted, the other, placed under the status of assisted witness, accuses the police of brutality.
Le Monde avec AFP
A high school student was indicted for “violence against police officers” while another, placed under the status of assisted witness, lodged a complaint for police violence against her after incidents during a demonstration in Marseille on December 12. The two teenage girls, aged 15, were arrested and taken into police custody after a demonstration against the “comprehensive security” law which had brought together a thousand people in the city.
The first was referred on December 13 and indicted by a children’s judge for violence against police officers, the Marseille prosecutor’s office told Agence France-Presse (AFP). A surveillance camera had filmed her throwing a stone at the police.
The second young girl, injured during her arrest, had seen her custody lifted during the night following the demonstration , for medical reasons, before being taken to hospital for treatment. Her medical certificate shows head trauma and multiple facial wounds, accompanied by a total incapacity for work (ITT) of seven days.
A video circulating on social networks shows her looking haggard, her face bloodied, handcuffed and surrounded by police but no image shows the conditions of her arrest.
“Traces of blows against lies”
Returned to custody on Wednesday, the teenager was referred Thursday, December 24 at the request of the prosecution which had taken requisitions for “violence against police and rebellion “. But the juvenile judge placed her under the status of assisted witness. A surveillance camera shows her grabbing a stone but she claims not to have thrown it, according to her Parisian lawyer M e Philippe Ohayon.
This high school student has her own side lodged a complaint against the police officers who arrested her for “willful violence in a meeting by persons holding public authority” to the Marseille prosecutor’s office and to the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN).
She claims a police officer grabbed her while she was running and punched her in the back of the head before immobilizing it with an arm lock and a choke. She also complains of having suffered insults, humiliations and remarks with a sexual connotation while in police custody.
The Marseille prosecutor’s office told AFP that they had seized the ethics and discipline cabinet of the departmental directorate of public security (DDSP) and not the IGPN, responsible for more complex cases. “The police have not yet been heard,” he added.
“This is just an arrest with someone who struggles, falls while resisting and injures his face, “a police source told AFP. “It is not a case of word against word but traces of blows against lies,” denounced M e Ohayon, according to whom the explanation provided does not justify the trauma of his client.