A French court on Tuesday found three police officers guilty of manslaughter over the death of a Black man in Paris in 2015 and sentenced each to a 15-month suspended jail term, reports FRANCE 24.
Amadou Koumé died after he was pinned to the ground by officers in a bar, put in a chokehold and subsequently left on his front, his hands cuffed behind his back, for more than six minutes.
Koumé, whose name has become a protest slogan against police violence in some communities, died as the result of a slow "mechanical asphyxia" according to a medical expert, the court heard during the trial.
"To hear the word 'guilty' is satisfying, but the sentence is relatively lenient," Eddy Arneton, a lawyer for the Koumé family, told reporters afterwards.
The prosecutor had sought a one-year suspended sentence, deeming that necessary and proportionate force had been used to immobilise Koumé but that the officers were negligent in leaving him on his front.