The Paris Court of Appeal on Thursday requested the total release of six Asnières police officers tried for the violent arrest of an Egyptian in April 2020.

By QM with AFP

Ua controversial questioning which had provoked indignation. The general counsel of the Paris Court of Appeal requested Thursday evening, September 14, the total release of six police officers from Asnières (Hauts-de-Seine), prosecuted for racist insults and violence during the arrest of a Egyptian in April 2020, describing the case as “a circus (…) which it is good to put an end to”.

The intervention of these officials, five men and a woman, caused a scandal because, filmed by a local resident, the video posted on the internet the next day notably showed one of the police officers saying that “a chap like that doesn’t swim.” At the heart of the first confinement, several individuals were suspected of theft on a construction site in the Paris suburbs. When the police arrived, three people fled and, in his pursuit, Samir E. plunged into the Seine.

Caught on the other bank, the Egyptian, then aged 29, was arrested to the sarcasm of the police. Handcuffed and taken to the van, he claims to have then been the victim of beatings by the police. An accusation defeated by the public prosecutor on Thursday.

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Severe penalties at first instance

If the doctor, who had seen the man arrested during his police custody, “did not mention anything (in his report), it is because there was nothing to observe and therefore this gentleman did not “had not been the object of violence”, estimated the attorney general.

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Tried at first instance in Bobigny in January 2022, the six officials were heavily sentenced, up to one year in prison – including six months, sentences then more severe than the prosecution’s requisitions. Suspended due to the late hour, the hearing must resume Friday morning with the end of the defense’s pleadings.