Several lawyers for teenagers placed in police custody during the high school students' movement continued to denounce, Friday October 9, physical violence, insults and "attempts at humiliation" on the part of police officers in police stations. According to the latest report from the Ministry of Justice, 6,877 people were placed in police custody, including 86% minors. All the lawyers who are involved come from the Internship Conference, the most prestigious competition of the Paris bar.
One of the minors held in police custody "says he was beaten up in his cell during the night because he exercised his right to remain silent during his hearing", wrote on September 30 a collective of lawyers, called Judicial Action (CAJ), founded and led by activists from Permanent Revolution, an organization classified on the far left, in a press release posted on Instagram. The collective had announced its intention to file a complaint and contact the police, particularly targeting the Saint-Denis police station (Seine-Saint-Denis).
A complaint is being drafted, Prisca Ancion, one of the lawyer members of the CAJ, who has assisted a “small dozen” young people in Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-d’Oise, since the start of the movement, confirmed to franceinfo on Thursday. She denounces “intimidation” in police custody, even “particularly serious police violence”. “The high school students describe an insult, a slap, holding their head on the ground, strangulations…”, lists the criminal lawyer, who believes that the police do not adapt “their practices (…) to the minority” of those in custody. According to her, police stations are the scene of “psychological violence” and “racist insults”, she says.
Prisca Ancion also denounces "pressure from the police" for adolescents to give up "fundamental rights" in police custody. “The rights are the same as for adults: the presence of a lawyer and a medical examination. But minors cannot waive them: it is obligatory,” explains the lawyer.
“When young people in police custody want to call us, the police tell them that we are bad lawyers, who will ask for a lot of money, while we intervene: we do not make the families pay!”
Another lawyer for the collective, Romane Bartoli, told ICI Paris and France 3 Paris Ile-de-France that in Saint-Denis, "the police are increasing attempts at intimidation". “They blocked all our numbers to prevent us from communicating and making contact with the arrested minors who wish to be defended.”
The young high school students unanimously report having also been pressured to waive their right to silence in police custody, according to the CAJ. Because this is what this collective advises to these young people arrested, just like the Union of Lawyers of France (SAF), which has written a guide for high school students.
The president of the SAF, Mohamed Jaite, demonstrated on Tuesday in Paris to denounce the treatment of minors in police custody. "There are a lot of injured and abused minors. Minors who have suffered degrading treatment, (...) who are kept in police custody in undignified conditions... And that is a generality," he declared, interviewed by the Youth Documentation Information Center. He cited situations in several large cities in the Paris region, pointing to an “unprecedented repression”.
Questioned by AFP on Thursday, Ainoha Pascual, member of the Legal Team Paris, one of the groups of lawyers who have made police violence one of their specialties, also claims to have noted "attempts to humiliation" towards the arrested high school students. “I feel that they are terrified,” testifies the lawyer. She assisted three teenagers in police custody in Paris, and told AFP that among them, a young girl was "taken barefoot to the police station" even though she had "asked the police" to pick up her lost shoes during her arrest.
