Police brutality in France: a man blinded by an LBD shot files a complaint

Wounded by a projectile on the night of June 30 to July 1, Abdelkarim Y. lost the use of his left eye. He filed a complaint for "willful violence by a person holding public authority", according to Le Figaro. New accusations of police violence in Marseille. Abdelkarim Y. filed a complaint for "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 for "attempted intentional homicide" after having was hit by an LBD shot, learned Le Figaro from his lawyer, Me Arié Alimi. As revealed by Mediapart and Liberation, Abdelkarim Y., 22, was going to a friend's house in the city center on the night of June 30 to July 1, in the middle of the night of riots following the death of Nahel , the 17-year-old teenager killed by police fire.

 Demonstrations in which he claims not to have taken part. According to his version of the facts, he would then have been targeted by a shot from a defense ball launcher (LBD) by a police crew. “I went towards the police and I turned to go to another street, and there they shot me. I was face to face with them, I saw that someone was aiming at me, but I didn't think he was going to shoot me, ”says Abdelkarim Y. to Liberation. Severely affected in the left eye, he had to undergo two surgeries before being able to return home, deeply traumatized, his lawyer tells us. "I was told it would be a miracle if I regained my sight," breathes the 22-year-old.

 In Abdelkarim's recollection, the officials who targeted him were "dressed all in black", with black helmets and accompanied by dark-colored armored vehicles. A description that could correspond to the Raid agents deployed that night in Marseille, according to the complainant. As such, Me Arié Alimi tells Le Figaro that he has written an additional complaint for "complicity by instigation" targeting the boss of the Raid, Jean-Baptiste Dulion, and the director general of the national police, Frédéric Veaux. This was to be filed on Tuesday at the Marseille prosecutor's office, which has already opened an investigation to identify the suspects and determine the context of this LBD shooting. Fatal LBD shot The day after Abdelkarim injured his left eye, his family was bereaved by the death of his cousin, Mohamed Bendriss, 27, also hit by an LBD in the middle of the street in Marseille, says Le Figaro.

“Mohamed died as a result of an LBD launcher being fired in the chest causing him to suffer cardiac arrest,” according to the complaint written by the family lawyer. With the Marseille branch of the Human Rights League, Me Arié Alimi launched a citizen neighborhood survey. The volunteers consult the traders and the inhabitants around the scene of the events in order to find the perpetrators of the shots that hit Mohamed. At this stage, no police officer has been implicated in the investigations concerning Abdelkarim and Mohamed. Last week, Le Figaro wrote in a report that Mohamed had a child and his widow is expecting the birth of their second child. The autopsy of this victim of French police brutality raises, according to Le Figaro, the possibility of his death by LBD bullet in his chest.

And Le Figaro to continue that these new accusations of police violence come when four police officers from this same city were indicted last week, and one of them placed in pre-trial detention. They are suspected of having beaten a young man on the sidelines of the riots in early July. This placement in pre-trial detention aroused the anger of the police, supported by the director general of the police (DGPN), Frédéric Veaux. The magistrates' unions judged "very serious" the statements of the latter who claimed to wish the release of the policeman from the Marseille BAC.