Mediapart can reveal the full details of how a 22-year-old man was subjected to a violent attack by a group of French police officers in the back of a police van after his arrest. Thierry L., was kicked in the head, tasered in the stomach and between his thighs and had his jacket soiled with excrement. The officers involved, whose initial actions were caught on video by locals, then sought to cover up what they had done.
The police officers involved were from the security and intervention unit known as CSI 93 from the Seine-Saint-Denis département or county north of Paris which has been the subject of several investigations. Earlier this year the head of the Paris police, Didier Lallement, was forced to announce the disbanding of the unit, though as Mediapart revealed in October this has not yet happened.
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The incident involving Thierry L. took place in August 2019 and though five officers were involved in the violent incident only one is facing criminal proceedings. Kevin C., one of the officers from CSI 93, was due to appear before a magistrates court at Bobigny, north of Paris, this week on charges of “violence committed by a person in public office”. He is also charged with forgery and falsification of official statements. However, after the court ruled it was not the appropriate body to judge the case, the matter is now likely to be investigated by an independent judge.
The case follows an initial investigation by the police watchdog body the Inspection Générale de la Police Nationale (IGPN). They produced a report in November 2019, which has now been seen by Mediapart, and which reveals not just the violence used but also the extent to which the police officers sought to cover up their actions.
In the official report of his arrest of Thierry L., police constable Kevin C. said that he had been “carrying out a foot patrol in plain clothes in the Émile-Cordon estate at Saint-Ouen [editor's note, in Seine-Saint-Denis, just north of central Paris] when he saw a drugs deal between a dealer [Thierry L.], hidden behind some rubbish bins, and a customer”.
When the officers' colleagues arrived as backup, Thierry L. is said to have tried to flee. The officer then states that he was obliged to pin him on the ground with the help of the other officers. Then, having been handcuffed, Thierry L. is said to have “attempted to escape. He also tried to kick the police officers”. The officer continued his official statement by justifying his use of the taser, which was used on the arrested man as he lay handcuffed on the ground.
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However, video recordings seen by the IGPN tell a very different story. Kevin C., who did not wear an armband identifying him as a police officer, grabbed hold of Thierry L. and then used tear gas on him. He was then joined by five colleagues. According to the IGPN the police constable managed to get Thierry L. on the ground and then “punched him several times”. One of the other officers “kicked [Thierry L.] in the head ... as [the victim] was restrained on the ground, he was no longer putting up any resistance”. At this time, and even though as the IGPN states the situation was contained, Kevin C. then kicked the victim in the head.
Meanwhile Thierry L., who was on the ground handcuffed and who had been hit several times, was “confused” about what was going on and “didn't know exactly what had happened”, he later told the IGPN detectives.
The arrested man simply recalled that his ordeal had not ended there. Indeed, he said that it was after he was taken to the police van that he had been “really afraid, they strangled me and I thought I was going to die,” he said. “They were all hitting me, crushing my head, strangling me from behind with an arm around my neck until I was ready to pass out, and they were saying to me 'shut your mouth you dirty bastard'.”
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Thierry L. was tasered three times in his genitals and realised that there was “shit on my coat” though he said he did not know exactly when the police had done this. An analysis carried out later by the IGPN confirmed the presence of fecal matter on various parts of the victim's jacket. Analysis of the taser meanwhile confirmed that “three electric impulses had been triggered within a minute at a time that corresponded to when all the protagonists had got into the van after the arrest”.
Contrary to what police constable Kevin C. asserted, Thierry L. had not sought to get rid of his bag when he had been caught dealing. The young man, who had been in and out of foster homes, and was then homeless and sleeping in parks or cars, did not deny selling drugs. On the day he was arrested he had sold 210 euros worth of drugs. He said, however, that the “police took 180 euros of it”. He said he had not dared to raise this during his time in custody because of the illegal nature of what he had been doing.
The IGPN report notes that not only did the video footage and expert analysis show the scale of the frenzy of violence and humiliations suffered by Thierry L., they also reveal the ways that the police sought to hide them.
Despite the videos, the police officers stuck to their version of events. For example, Kevin C. denied having “written a false statement, admitting at most to several errors, a lack of precision or omissions”. He insisted that he had indeed worn his armband identifying him as a police officer as he “had it in his pocket”.
Another police constable acknowledged that he had “briefly cut off Thierry L's breathing when getting him into the van … But none of them had employed unjustified blows … the kick by police constable Kevin C. to the shoulder was described as 'slight' and aimed at helping with the handcuffing”.
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After his arrest, Thierry L. alerted police lieutenant Charlotte C. over the blows he had received and said he feared “more violence”, as the lieutenant herself later told the IGPN. But the officer took no action and accompanied the arrested man back to the police station.
Out of the five officers who were involved in the violence only one, Kevin C., is facing criminal proceedings. Thierry L.'s lawyer, Yassine Bouzrou, criticised the fact that “the prosecutor at Bobigny had refused, despite some overwhelming evidence, to take proceedings against the four other officers from the CSI 93”. The lawyer accused them of “aggravated violence, acts of torture and barbarity, theft and falsifying official statements”.
Kevin C., was due to go on trial at a magistrates court in Bobigny, north of Paris, on Thursday November 5th. But lawyer Yassine Bouzrou had been unhappy that the case was being heard by a magistrates court and not a court of assize, which involves jury trials. The crime of forgery and falsifying official statements carries a maximum sentence of ten years imprisonment at a magistrates court. But the aggravating factor that it was committed by someone holding a public office – a charge that the prosecution did not pursue - can carry a 15-year term and such offences are tried at a court of assize.
In the end the magistrates court at Bobigny ruled on Thursday that it was not the appropriate court to try the case. The file is now likely to be handed to an independent investigating judge and the case could eventually go before an assize court. However, the deputy-prosecutor at Bobigny, Loïc Pageot, said that because of the backlog of cases it would be unlikely to go to court before 2024.
It is understood that the prosecution at Bobigny had taken the decision to prosecute the case on a lesser charge at a magistrates court to avoid the long delay of an assize court trial. But Yassine Bouzrou said: “It's only at Bobigny that they're raising this issue. I think that criminals should be judged for the crimes that they have committed.”
The lawyer also suggested that it was the leniency of the prosecutors in the past that had allowed the situation with the police unit CSI 93 in Seine-Saint-Denis to get out of hand. “The proliferation of serious offences carried out by the CSI 93 was made possible by the decision of the prosecutor at Bobigny not to proceed against the most serious acts,” said Yassine Bouzrou, who believes that the CSI's officers have “benefited from legal protection”.
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- The French version of this report can be found here.
English version by Michael Streeter