Friday, November 6, several deputies from La France insoumise, members of the parliamentary commission of inquiry into October 17, received Maïssa at the National Assembly, whose life was turned upside down during a day of mobilization. The student lost her left eye on the sidelines of the demonstration in Mulhouse, probably due to a tear gas grenade. An IGPN investigation is open, just like more than 80 others since the start of the high school movement. Present at the National Assembly, the 18-year-old young woman wants to testify to move forward.
This afternoon of October 17, Maïssa had not planned to demonstrate. She is in Mulhouse to meet her best friends. “We went shopping, we went to eat and then we found ourselves in the demonstration,” she remembers. They stay out of curiosity. "People were singing and dancing. There was Michael Jackson. There were characters, people in wheelchairs, mothers who had their strollers with the children too. It was a good atmosphere."
The student did not see the grenade coming and claimed not to have heard any warnings. “I didn’t hear anything and suddenly I had an impact in my eye, a sharp pain. When I took my hand away from my eye, I saw blood and that’s when I realized it was serious,” says the student. Three weeks after “these facts”, as she says, Maïssa still wears a bandage and a plastic shell over her eye. She underwent two operations, one of which was on her 18th birthday. She explains that she had “a fracture of the orbital floor.”
“I would like justice to be done”
This first year student of applied foreign languages in English and German will never see out of her left eye again. “The first days were hard. Every day I woke up, I cried. Now, I have accepted the situation a little more,” she says, her voice trembling. Even if she says she's a little lost.
“I still have a strong feeling of fear walking in my city.”
Maïssa, victim of a grenade attack
at franceinfo
"I also have this sadness because my life changed suddenly. I didn't deserve that. No one deserves that. I still try to go out, even if it's hard because there are people's looks," she says. Maïssa suffers from chronic fatigue and recurring migraines. She is not expected to return to university this year or to protests. For "fear of losing a second eye." She is not an activist, but since her injury, she wants to get involved. “We should start taking young people seriously. And I would like that to change, that we remove these weapons. Because they are weapons that have repercussions that we cannot change,” she emphasizes.
She is considering perhaps testifying before the parliamentary commission of inquiry on October 17. Maïssa does her best to hold on. Cindy, her mother, is very angry with the police. "I would like justice to be done. That we find the person who did this to her, that she no longer fulfills her duties. If only for her and for all the others who could follow behind. It would be a great victory."
For the moment the IGPN investigation has not made it possible to identify the police officer responsible for the shooting. An illegal shot, according to Maïssa's lawyer, Maître Pierre Brunisso. "This police officer who fired carried out a tense shot. What we are waiting for is his suspension. Because today, the Minister of the Interior, Mr. Nuñez, has not issued any administrative suspension against the police officers since the start of the high school students' movement", points out Maitre Brunisso. The lawyer also referred this matter to the rights defender.
