Scores of people who took part in pro-Gaza protests in Paris in July and early August have been arrested, provoking claims that the police authorities have been targeting non-white Muslim demonstrators. For example, 110 people were detained by police during unauthorised demonstrations on July 19th and July 26th.
Here Mediapart examines the case of one young demonstrator, Mohamed S. - his full name is being withheld – who took part in a march on July 13th. According to support groups, what happened to Mohamed is typical of the treatment being meted out to Muslims of Arab or North African background.
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The incident took place on the afternoon of Sunday July 13th, when Mohamed S., aged 24, his 22-year-old brother Hassan and their friend Renaud took part in the protest that marched from Barbès in the north of Paris to the place de la Bastille in the east of the city. Once the demonstration was over the trio returned on foot to their car, which had been left in a car park at Barbès. Hassan, like his “white friend” Renaud, was wearing a keffiyeh – a form of headdress often associated with the Palestinians – which covered all of his head.
Having got into the car, they were soon stopped by three police officers, because Hassan was deemed to be 'concealing his face in a public place'. This is an offence under a 2010 French law that is usually associated with the banning of full-face veils for women but which in fact applies to all head gear, including balaclavas.
After all three had got out of the car, Mohamed intervened to object to his younger brother being singled out in this way, and the situation degenerated. In the end it was just Mohamed who was arrested and taken away to the police station. Two days later, on July 15th, he stood trial in a hearing which was, according to Libération, worthy of a “bad film”. At one point the senior judge interrupted Mohamed and told him: “You say that the identity check was wrongful, but is it for you to judge? You're not here to express yourself but to answer my questions.” Mohamed was given a four-month jail sentence for resisting arrest, and he was taken straight off to prison.
Last week, on Thursday August 7th, Mohamed's case was heard on appeal, and around 15 supporters turned up at the courtroom to show their support. They included members of Mohamed and Hassan's family but also activists from groups that took part in the pro-Gaza protests. Among these were an organisation opposed to stop and searches by police and a support group for those arrested in the demonstrations, as well as members of the anti-imperialist Parti des indigènes de la République party.
As they gathered in the corridors of the Palais de Justice law courts, Mohamed's supporters criticised the use of “stop and searches” during the Gaza protests and attacked the “racist convictions” that followed. For them Mohamed, who was one of the first demonstrators to be tried, has become a symbol of what they call a justice system with “double standards”.
At 9.30am it was time for Mohamed's court appearance and he entered the dock, his curly hair tied back in an improvised bun. In a quiet voice he described what sounded like police aggression. “My djellaba was torn before the identity check even took place. The policeman hit me in the mouth with a baton, that's when things turned nasty.” The court heard that Mohamed was signed off work for a day following his injuries, but none of the three police officers was kept off work. His defence said that during the altercation Mohamed was told that his religion was “primitive” and that he was asked: “What are you doing in France? If you want to fight for Palestine, go to Palestine.”
Lawyers representing the police officers – under French law they are entitled as potential victims to be represented in criminal proceedings as parties civiles or 'civil parties' to the action – sought to dismiss such claims. They criticised what they claimed was a “standard diversionary [tactic]” to raise question marks over police behaviour. The police said Mohamed had been “shouting” and that he then became very violent when Hassan was being questioned.
One of the police officers, M., gave evidence, impeccably dressed in his uniform. “This individual,” he told the court, indicating Mohamed, “pushed us violently under the pretext that it was because it was his brother [who was being questioned]...he punched [one of us] below the bullet-proof vest, it was at that point we decided to arrest him,” he said, speaking on behalf of the three officers present at the scene. Police officer C., who was the officer punched in the stomach, was not present during the hearing.
As for Mohamed, he said he was unable to understand the officers' version of events. “I was one of those at [place de la] Bastille who was defending the gendarmes against the rioters. Why would I want to go to Barbès to hit police officers? If I hit out it was when I was being strangled on the ground by the police officers, I was frightened, it was involuntary,” he told the court.
His lawyer, Nicolas Putman, added: “He refused to be handcuffed, that's the only thing that constituted an act of resisting [arrest].” The advocate spoke of a “sense of insidious racism” in the arrest, questioning why Mohamed's friend did not feature in the evidence. Following the incident the only one of the three young men who did not have his details and identity taken down by the three officers was Renaud. When asked to explain this, the police officer said: “Because he wasn't violent.” Renaud himself had a different explanation. “It's all to do with my face. I'm white...” he said after the hearing.
Back in the courtroom, this was a view shared by Mohamed himself. An agency worker in full-time employment - he says he currently earns 1,400 euros a month working for a warehouse firm – Mohamed is going through a period of rehabilitation after spending a year in prison for attempted robbery. Having been released from prison last October, 2013, Mohamed shed a few tears at the end of this new court appearance: “You can put me in prison for three, five or six months, I won't change my story, I'm innocent,” he said. “The reason I'm in this dock today is that I'm a Muslim and that I support Palestine.”
Having allowed Mohamed to have his say, the court confirmed his conviction for resisting arrest, though it reduced his sentence from four to three months, and did not order his immediate detention “having regard to his successful rehabilitation”. He was freed later in the day and is likely to see his jail sentence commuted to a period of community service.
After the hearing there was a feeling of partial relief among family and supporters. However, Mohamed's brother Hassan, who lives at Beaumont-sur-Oise, a town north of Paris, was still angry about the way he and others are singled out by the authorities. Hassan said he is subjected to on-the-spot identity checks by police officers as often as six or seven times a day. “I even had my identity checked downstairs at my place, which is in a village. The gendarmes are not used to an Arab who lives in a detatched house...” he added.
The various support groups claimed that there have been dozens of cases similar to that of Mohamed's since the start of the Gaza protests. According to them, students, young mothers and women in their sixties have been among those arrested. All of them are of Arab or North African background, while many of them have no history of trouble with the authorities.
The police authority in Paris, the Préfecture de la Police de Paris, says it is using footage from video surveillance cameras to arrest some of those suspected of carrying out the worst rioting that occurred. The first of these was a 32-year-old Algerian who was convicted on Tuesday August 5th for attacking and setting fire to a RATP bus during a protest on July 19th. He was given a three-year jail term, the toughest sentence yet pronounced in relation to the Gaza demonstrations.
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- The French version of this article is available here.
English version by Michael Streeter