This Saturday, October 31, while violence broke out between groups of demonstrators and the police at La Plaine, in Marseille, Rémi Aubert, not being part of this group, headed for his bike to go home. He recounts his ordeal: the CRS seeing him running, caught him and beat him. Result: a broken nose, seven knocked out teeth and six stitches. A complaint was filed; the IGPN is entered.
Starting his day on Saturday October 31, 2026, Rémi Aubert, 39, did not expect to end up in the emergency room with seven missing teeth, a broken nose and six stitches.
Earlier, at the start of the evening, this podiatrist from Marseille claimed to have been hit by several police officers who were charging demonstrators near Boulevard Chave. Contacted by ICI Provence-Alpes TV, the young man explains that he participated in the demonstration but specifies that he was no longer there when the attack occurred.
The Marseille prosecutor's office confirmed on November 3 that an investigation was opened into "violence committed by persons holding public authority with weapons" and entrusted to the IGPN.
Attacked on his way home
"We participated in the demonstration from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., in a good mood. When it ended, we went to Cours Julien to drink and eat. Around 8 p.m./8:30 p.m., I was very tired, so I left with a friend to go pick up my bike on rue Saint-Pierre and go home," he says with difficulty.
However, when they arrived near Boulevard Chave, the two friends saw a group of demonstrators running towards them, towards the plain. "We heard a lot of noise and people arrived from the plain, where there was a big CRS charge. There were cordons of CRS in the streets around us and we found ourselves stuck. I panicked and I ran to escape the charge, especially since I wasn't concerned. So I was behind, calm," he explains.
Baton blows for 15 seconds
At this precise moment, Rémi Aubert receives what he thinks is a “brush”. “I saw them charge me with their batons. Several of them attacked me for 15 or 20 seconds. Most of them hit my face, they attacked my face fiercely. I tried to protect myself as best I could,” he remembers, still shocked.
An act all the more incomprehensible for the young man as he tried to warn the police that he had nothing to do with what was happening. "I explained to them that I had just gone to get my bike, I told them: 'I'm not a bad guy.'
A complaint filed
After the charge, Rémi Aubert found himself alone on the ground: “I was bleeding. I was looking for my teeth, in vain”. An ultra-violent attack which earned the young man an initial total incapacity for work of 10 days with a broken nose, seven teeth pulled out, and six stitches, including three in the skull and three in the lips. “I was terrified and incomprehensible. I was afraid for my life. When we see between five and ten CRS above us beating us, we are afraid for our lives and we wonder when it will stop,” he says.
For his lawyer, Mathilde Lanté, who also defends the young Enzo, a 17-year-old high school student injured on October 7 during a charge by the police on the sidelines of the blockade of his establishment, the Saint-Exupéry high school, this attack is a case of police violence: "Since the start of the high school movement, police violence has increased. He experienced extreme violence when he was just going to get his bike. Nothing can justify this type of violence."
A video surveillance camera near the attack
An unacceptable act according to the lawyer which results in a complaint filed for intentional violence with weapons in meetings leading to an ITT of more than eight days per person holding public authority. “We want an investigation by the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) and that the people involved be judged for these facts,” insists Mathilde Lanté.
Although few witnesses were able to see the scene, she specifies that a video surveillance camera was near the attack: "I asked to use it quickly. My biggest fear is that the images will not be usable or that we will be told that it was not filming at that time."
A complaint also filed against the firefighters
Rémi Aubert also plans to file a complaint against the firefighters. While he was on the ground, the first witnesses called the firefighters who, according to him, simply gave him two sachets of compresses and a tube of physiological serum before leaving. "I didn't really understand. I was on the ground, bleeding. Two friends who had joined us called the Samu again who told us that they had to call the firefighters and take me to the emergency room immediately. When the firefighters saw me again, they said to me: "You again? “We don’t just have to do that,” blowing without even getting out of the truck,” explains the young man.
After insisting, the firefighters offered him a place in the truck in a virulent manner. “I was scared, I decided that I wouldn’t go up with them after all given their attitude,” explains the podiatrist who arrived at the emergency room by taxi. "I still don't realize what happened to me. When I talk about it to those around me, everything comes back, I want to cry. When I wake up, I tell myself that it's a nightmare, then I stick my tongue in my mouth and I realize that it's not," he confides, saddened.
Rémi Aubert also plans to file a complaint against the firefighters for failure to assist a person in danger in the coming days. For now, the young man, who works in a liberal profession, is working to cancel his patients' appointments. He does not know when he will be able to resume his activity.
