Police officers to stand trial over deaths that led to French riots of 2005
On October 27th, 2005, two police officers chased three teenagers into an electricity sub-station in a Parisian suburb where two of them died after being electrocuted. Their deaths provoked major riots around Paris and across France. Nearly eight years later a French court has ruled that the two officers should stand trial, on charges of failing to provide assistance to persons in danger. Mediapart's legal affairs correspondent Michel Deléan reports on the complex background to this high-profile case.
OnOn October 27th, 2005, two police officers chased three teenagers into an electricity sub-station in a Parisian suburb where two of them died after being electrocuted. Their deaths provoked three weeks of major riots around Paris and across France (see timeline of events here). On Friday 20th September, almost eight years later, a French court ruled that the two officers should stand trial, on charges of failing to provide assistance to persons in danger. The officers had chased the teenagers into a power sub-station at Clichy-sous-Bois, east of Paris, and had not alerted anyone that the youths were in grave danger.
