Three police officers have been given suspended jail sentences for assaulting a young footballer during an arrest in 2017 in a case that has thrown the spotlight on police violence and racism in France, reports The Guardian.
The decision not to send the officers to prison sparked angry protests in Paris on Friday.
Théodore Luhaka was talking to friends on his housing estate in the Paris suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois in February 2017 when he was stopped by police carrying out identity checks.
The officers then sprayed him with teargas, beat him around the face and body and caused him serious injuries after perforating his anus with an extendable police baton leaving him incontinent. The beating lasted eight minutes and was captured on video.
The case led to several nights of unrest and protests in France. The then Socialist president, François Hollande, visited Luhaka in hospital and a number of well-known figures, including actors Omar Sy and Vincent Cassel, publicly supported the young man and criticised the police.
Two of the three officers, all of whom are still working for the police in desk jobs, were charged with aggravated voluntary violence. A third, Marc-Antoine Castelain, was accused of voluntary violence leading to permanent injury.
Castelain was given a one-year suspended prison sentence. He was banned from public police duties for five years.
The judges at the criminal court of Seine-Saint-Denis in the Paris suburb of Bobigny ruled on Friday that the injury caused to Luhaka could not be considered a permanent disability. Rape charges initially brought against Castelain were dropped before the trial.
Two other officers, Jérémie Dulin and Tony Hochart, who were found to have hit Luhaka during his arrest, were each given three months suspended sentences and banned from public police duties for two years.
The three officers claimed they were acting in self-defence.