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French policeman charged over shooting of teenager

A French policeman has been charged and remanded in custody ahead of trial over the killing of a teenager at point blank range which sparked nationwide protests, prosecutors said Thursday.

Published: 29 June 2023 17:58 CEST
French policeman charged over shooting of teenager
Police officers clash with protesters during a commemoration march for a teenage driver shot dead by a policeman, in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre, on June 29, 2023. (Photo by Alain JOCARD / AFP)

The investigating magistrate has charged the policeman with voluntary homicide and placed him in provisional detention over Tuesday’s incident, the regional prosecutors said in a statement.

Earlier on Thursday a prosecutor said the policeman’s use of his firearm had not been legal under the circumstances, and he would be taken before a magistrate with a view to being charged with homicide.

The teenager, named Nahel, was killed as he pulled away from police who tried to stop him for traffic infractions.

A video, authenticated by AFP, showed two policemen standing by the side of the stationary car, with one pointing a weapon at the driver.

A voice is heard saying: “You are going to get a bullet in the head.”

The police officer then appears to fire as the car abruptly drives off.

On Thursday night the police officer’s lawyer told BFM TV that his client had wanted to aim at the teenager’s legs but his gun rose up as the teenager drover away.

“My client risked being run over, he was in danger,” the lawyer said after insisting his client was sorry for the death of the youngster.

Clashes first erupted as the video emerged to contradict police accounts that the teenager was driving at the officer.

French authorities are ready for more violent night protests over the fatal shooting of a teenager by a policeman according
to an internal security note on Thursday, a police source said.

The source referred to an internal document saying the “coming nights” were expected “to be the theatre of urban violence” with “actions targeted at the forces of order and the symbols of the state”, the source said.

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NEW CALEDONIA

Fresh violence rocks French overseas territories

French authorities on Thursday grappled with a new spike in violence in the country's overseas territories with security forces killing two men in New Caledonia and officials ordering a curfew after rioting in Martinique.

Published: 19 September 2024 08:49 CEST
Fresh violence rocks French overseas territories

The fresh trouble comes at a sensitive time for France where the new prime minister Michel Barnier is struggling to form a government following snap parliamentary elections and has warned of a “very serious” financial situation.

During an overnight security operation in New Caledonia, two men were killed south of the capital Noumea, the public prosecutor said Thursday, taking the death toll to 13 after months of unrest in the French Pacific territory.

Violence broke out in mid-May over Paris’s plan for voting reforms that indigenous Kanak people fear would leave them in a permanent minority, crushing their chances of winning independence.

While unrest in the South Pacific territory has ebbed since mid-July, an AFP journalist witnessed new clashes erupt between French police and civilians in Saint Louis, a heartland of the independence movement just south of Noumea.

On Thursday, public prosecutor Yves Dupas said security forces on an observation mission fired two shots after being “directly threatened by a group of armed individuals”.

The first “hit a man, aged 30, positioned as a lone gunman, in the right side of the abdomen,” Dupas said in a statement.

“The second shot hit a man, aged 29, in the chest.”

‘We are not terrorists’

Police were looking for around a dozen people suspected of involvement in attacks on security forces.

“We’re not terrorists, we’re not in a state of war,” said one mother in the village where the security operation was taking place.

France sent thousands of troops and police to the archipelago, which is home to around 270,000 people and located nearly 17,000 kilometres from Paris.

In violence not seen since the near-civil war of the 1980s, hundreds of people were injured and the damage was estimated at around €2.2 billion.

The electoral change — which requires altering the French constitution — has effectively been in limbo since President Emmanuel Macron dissolved parliament for new elections that in July produced a lower house with no clear majority.

The road to Saint-Louis in the south of the archipelago’s main island Grande Terre is closed. For the 1,200 inhabitants of Saint-Louis, the only way in or out is by foot after presenting an ID at checkpoints.

Only emergency services and ambulances can otherwise cross into the village.

Almost all other roadblocks across New Caledonia have been lifted, but a curfew between 10:00 pm and 5:00 am remains in place.

Authorities are also under pressure in the French Caribbean island of Martinique, home to around 350,000 people.

Officials ordered a curfew in several districts of Fort-de-France, the island’s main city, and next-door Lamentin, after violent cost-of-living protests.

The curfew, ordered on Wednesday evening, runs between 9:00 pm to 5:00 am and will remain in force until at least September 23.

A McDonald’s restaurant was set on fire this week.

The riots follow protests that began in early September over rising prices.

The prefect of Martinique, Jean-Christophe Bouvier, said authorities have made 15 arrests.

Eleven police officers were injured by gunfire, he said, adding that three rioters also sustained injuries.

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