October 17 demonstrations in Paris: the IGPN opens an investigation concerning a photographer injured by a police grenade

The Paris prosecutor's office indicated on Saturday that it had opened an investigation entrusted to the IGPN, the "police of police", concerning a photographer seriously injured by a police "grenade shot" during the October 17 demonstration in Paris. The prosecution explained that it opened this investigation after being informed by the victim's lawyer of “serious injuries to him (...) leading to his hospitalization”.

The investigation has been opened into charges of “violence by a person holding public authority, followed by mutilation or permanent disability, during a demonstration on the public highway”. It “is opened in parallel with the complaint with the constitution of a civil party filed by the lawyer with the senior investigating judge for the same facts, in order to avoid any loss of evidence,” specified the prosecution.

The lawyer, Me Arié Alimi, explained to AFP that he filed this complaint on Thursday for “attempted voluntary homicide” after Ahmed B., 25, was hit in the “femoral artery” by a police “grenade shot” on October 17. “He almost died. The police did not help him by leaving him to bleed out on the sidewalk,” said Mr. Alimi. The complaint also denounces “intentional violence resulting in mutilation or permanent disability, committed in a meeting, by a person holding public authority, with the use of a weapon” and “complicity in attempted murder by instigation”.

“Still in intensive care”

“I regret that the Paris prosecutor's office initially refused any communication and rejected the opening of a preliminary investigation. This new qualification (legal, editor's note) has the sole purpose of protecting the prefect of Paris and the Minister of the Interior,” reacted Saturday Me Alimi, requested by the AFP, while the investigation is not open for attempted intentional homicide.

Ahmed B., who came to Paris to document the demonstration, was “the victim of a grenade fire by a police officer” at Place de la République, according to the complaint. The photographer, who “lost more than a liter of blood”, according to his lawyer, was transported by demonstrators to an ambulance, which took him to hospital. “Operated urgently, for more than three hours”, he was “saved at the last minute”, according to the complaint. He is “still in intensive care, without it being possible to know whether he will retain the use of his leg,” we can still read in the complaint.