An IGPN investigation opened concerning a photographer injured in Paris by a police grenade during a demonstration on October 17

A new file arrives on the desk of the “police department”. The Paris prosecutor's office announced on Saturday October 24 that it had opened an investigation entrusted to the IGPN concerning a photographer seriously injured by a police "grenade shot" during a demonstration on October 17 in the capital. 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. On Friday, the Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nunez, specified that eight investigations had already been opened by the IGPN for events that occurred on October 17 and 18.

He was “saved at the last minute”

Arié Alimi, the victim's lawyer, 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". “He almost died. The police did not help him by leaving him to bleed out on the sidewalk,” he said. 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".

The photographer was carried by protesters 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 if he will retain the use of his leg", we can still read in the complaint.