The much-in-demand “font of fonts”. Six investigations were opened and entrusted to the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) for violence committed against demonstrators on Saturday October 17 and Sunday October 18, on the sidelines of the mobilization against the high cost of living organized in several cities in France, franceinfo learned from a source close to the matter on Tuesday October 20.
These investigations will have to determine the exact circumstances of the use of weapons by the police. In addition to these referrals, 36 investigations have been opened by the IGPN since the start of the high school movement, according to statements by the Ministry of the Interior Laurent Nuñez, Tuesday October 13, before the Senate. Here is what we know, at this stage, about the investigations that franceinfo is aware of.
A teenage girl with one blind eye in Mulhouse
In Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin), a 17-year-old girl permanently lost the use of her left eye during the demonstration organized on Saturday, despite emergency surgery, according to the city's public prosecutor, Nicolas Heitz. That day, a gathering of 1,000 people was held near the station. The situation escalated when a subgroup of around 400 protesters attempted to invade the building, according to the prosecutor. The police then use tear gas to “protect the travelers” present and in return suffer “direct attacks and the throwing of pyrotechnic fireworks”.
Witnesses, interviewed by Politis, assure that the young woman then received a tear gas grenade thrown by the police, which the prosecutor did not confirm. “I saw the gray cartridge hit the kid’s eye and when it hit the ground, the tear gas came out,” assures a witness of the scene to the media. According to the account of a friend of the victim, still in Politis, she was not one of the demonstrators. The young woman assures that they went out together from a kebab shop, around 4:30 p.m., near the station, and that they came across the demonstration at that time: "It was calm, nothing was happening (...). And I saw the police who, suddenly, threw gas. (...) We wanted to cross but we couldn't. The police threw lots of gas again and one fell on my girlfriend's eye."
The prosecution opened an investigation into "flagrance for aggravated violence" and contacted the IGPN delegation in Metz on Sunday to shed light on the nature of the shooting, the responsibility of the police and "determine the precise course of events leading to this serious injury". The public prosecutor stressed that the investigations promised to be complex due to the large number of people present on the scene and the difficult nature of law enforcement operations.
A minor with his hand torn off in Saint-Etienne
In Saint-Etienne, in the Loire, another 17-year-old teenager was seriously injured. The accident took place on Saturday, in front of a shopping center in the city center, around 3 p.m. For an hour, the demonstrators faced the police, with mortar fire and fireworks from one side and tear gas from the other. During this tense face-to-face encounter, the young man had his right hand torn off by the explosion of a grenade, according to his lawyer Yassine Bouzrou. The teenager explained that he had picked up the projectile before it exploded, members of the medical staff at the event who took care of him told AFP.
The investigation entrusted to the IGPN and the General Inspectorate of the National Gendarmerie (IGGN) on Saturday by the prosecution seeks to precisely identify the model of the grenade used and the conformity of the throw. “We are told that it would be a grenade from the gendarmerie. I cannot confirm it,” explained Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, shortly after the incident. The minor's lawyer announced on Monday the filing of a complaint against the perpetrator of the shooting as well as against the Minister of the Interior for "complicity in aggravated violence, by instructions". The young man “remains hospitalized”, according to him.
A protester injured in the head in Paris
Another investigation was opened and the IGPN contacted after the complaint of a demonstrator injured in the head during Saturday's mobilization in Paris, the prosecution announced on Sunday. Videos taken near the Gare du Nord and posted on social networks show a man "injured in the head" and bleeding, writes the same source.
Taken to Cochin hospital, he then went to the 14th arrondissement police station late Saturday afternoon to file a complaint. “He indicated that it was he who appeared in the videos broadcast on social networks and attributed illegitimate violence to the police,” assured the prosecution. The investigation is opened for “violence by a person holding public authority”.
A man injured in the eye in Strasbourg
An investigation was opened and the IGPN was seized by the prosecutor's office on Monday after a serious eye injury inflicted on a 27-year-old man on Saturday in Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin). The incident took place at Place de la Grande-Boucherie, at the Pont du Corbeau, a strategic crossing point in downtown Strasbourg, where tension was high between police and demonstrators.
According to witnesses interviewed by Les Derniers Nouvelles d'Alsace, the impact was the result of response fire carried out by CRS, directed towards demonstrators who were protecting themselves from the jets of tear gas and helping traders to put away tables and chairs. A witness interviewed by France 3 Grand Est assures that the injured man was a passerby, an assertion which has not been confirmed by the authorities.
The victim was treated by firefighters and transported to hospital. The investigation was opened for “aggravated violence by a person holding public authority,” prosecutor Agnès Robine told DNA.
