Beating of a police officer in Belfort: the lawyer of the accused teenager denounces the attitude of the prosecutor

The public prosecutor of Belfort "behaves like the lawyer of the police officer", denounces Monday October 5 on franceinfo Arié Alimi, the lawyer of the teenager implicated in the beating of a police officer in Belfort on Friday, during a high school mobilization. The young man is being prosecuted for aggravated violence and was placed in pre-trial detention on Sunday.

The lawyer criticizes the prosecutor for having "not even opened an investigation to determine whether the police officer had tried to drown [his] client. The conditions of this procedure are truly quite unbearable," he adds. “I doubt that [the public prosecutor] has the right to charge or completely blame a young man who has just been arrested and placed in custody,” also denounces Arié Alimi, who deplores the treatment inflicted on his client. “I have rarely seen a public prosecutor express himself so much, at such length, by reporting police custody reports, by showing images, I find that quite deplorable.”

According to the prosecutor, at a press conference, the accused declared in custody, regarding the police officer: "I don't think he tried to drown, I had that impression at first because I was simply surprised." The lawyer responds on franceinfo that his client, of Bulgarian nationality, "has difficulties with oral expression and comprehension" and that during his custody, while "he did not understand what was happening to him, it is possible that upon request [...] he indicated his feelings in relation to the wishes of the police officer." But for Arié Alimi, "that's not the question, the question is whether this young man had his head submerged in water twice and [s]his answer is yes."

“My client is a child,” continues the lawyer, “and he had his head plunged into water twice by this police officer. The prosecutor has avoided the violence of these images.” Arié Alimi also accuses the Belfort public prosecutor of lying. “He lied because he indicated that he was not aware of a complaint for attempted murder by my client even though this complaint had already been filed with his services and signed well before the press conference” which was held on Sunday afternoon, adds the lawyer.

The images circulated on social networks on Sunday evening, showing a police officer trying to arrest a teenager in a stream in Belfort, his head being submerged. Once out of the water, the agent was beaten by around ten people. A 17-year-old minor is in pre-trial detention, in accordance with the prosecutor's orders, on the sidelines of the high school demonstrations. The teenager is suspected of having kicked the victim several times.

Earlier on Sunday, the Belfort prosecutor also announced the arrest of another 15-year-old high school student also suspected of having hit the police officer. The latter was placed under judicial control "including various obligations", such as a ban on participating in a demonstration or even carrying a weapon. The investigation is now continuing as part of a judicial investigation opened for aggravated violence.