A French policeman who is suspected of opening fire while Marseille was experiencing riots a month ago has admitted shooting a 22-year-old man in the head with a rubber bullet.
Hedi, an assistant restaurant manager, suffered severe injuries and disfigurement as a result of the “flash ball”.
Since the officer has been detained for weeks, colleagues in Marseille and elsewhere have expressed outrage.
On Thursday, the public defender requested that the court retain him in custody.
The officer’s attorney has filed an appeal for his release, but the prosecutor said that it was necessary to consider the possibility of “fraudulent collusion” among coworkers.
The suspect is one of four police officers who are being investigated for their alleged involvement in riots that broke out across France at the beginning of July.
After a 17-year-old named Nahel was fatally shot by a police during a traffic stop in Nanterre, close to Paris, they broke out.
Hedi, a North African immigrant who was hit in the head but survived, suffered headaches, lost vision in his left eye, and had to walk with a helmet on. He also lost a portion of his skull.
The officer, known only as Christophe, said in a statement to the court in Aix-en-Provence that he made the decision to fire once with his LBD launcher when he noticed two people in hood.
When asked by his attorney if Hedi was hit by the shot, the officer responded, “There’s no proof.”
Although the officer’s version was wholly nonsensical, Hedi’s attorney Jacques Preziosi later said that “finally we have a confession that he fired the LBD… until now everyone denied it.”
Olivier Véran, a government spokesman, called Hedi earlier this week to wish him well.
The 22-year-old has described to French media how he met his friend Lilian after finishing work at a restaurant early on July 2. Four members of a police anti-crime brigade (BAC) confronted them as they were walking along the riot’s edge.
We wished the officers a good night but soon discovered they were agitated and uninterested in speaking.
Hedi was shot in the head and collapsed on the ground while his friend was able to escape. He recalls being tortured for as long as five minutes while being dragged around the ground and beaten: “I felt something enormous in my skull that was burning me.”
One of the four police officers engaged in the Marseille incident was remanded by magistrates, which was a rare decision that has infuriated other cops.
In response to his imprisonment, an estimated 5% of officers have either used their sick days or worked on call.
According to Frédéric Veaux, the national police chief, cops shouldn’t be regarded like criminals or thugs.
“A police officer has no place in prison before an eventual trial, even if he may have committed faults or grave error in his work,” he stated.
While acknowledging the strong feelings among officers, President Emmanuel Macron declared that “no one in the Republic is above the law.”
The incident has once again brought attention to French police’s controversial use of “flash-ball” rubber bullets, which have resulted in numerous fatalities and life-altering injuries in recent years.
Mohamed Bendriss, 27, was shot in the chest during the protests in Marseille the same evening that Hedi was hurt. He had a heart arrest and passed away.
Although two marks on the scooter delivery driver’s chest and thigh that are consistent with the impact of a “flash ball” were discovered, prosecutors are still looking into whether an LBD was to blame for his demise.
Abdelkarim, his cousin, may lose one of his eyesight after being struck in the eye the previous evening.
During a protest in Nantes in April against the government’s pension reforms, a man lost a testicle.