Claims by French president Emmanuel Macron and the state prosecutor that a 73-year-old protestor seriously injured at a demonstration was not pushed over by a police officer have been contradicted by a police report, Mediapart can reveal. Geneviève Legay, a local spokesperson for the alter-globalization Attac, was hurt during a 'yellow vest' protest in Nice in southern France on Saturday March 23rd. The incident quickly dominated the news headlines and President Macron himself got involved, rejecting claims that she was knocked over by the forces of law and order and insisting that police officers had not touched her. The state prosecutor in Nice, Jean-Michel Prêtre, also insisted that this was the case - though he has since changed his view.
But according to information received by Mediapart, on the very day of the incident a police officer stated in his account of events that Geneviève Legay was run into by a “man carrying a shield”.
Images broadcast since March 23rd show this veteran activist in the process of demonstrating peacefully with a rainbow flag in her hand and then, a few seconds later, suddenly lying on the ground with blood around her face. Geneviève Legay was taken to hospital suffering from bleeding on the brain, bruising to her brain and skull fractures.
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On the same day the local prosecutor Jean-Michel Prêtre opened an investigation to “find the causes of the injuries” and stated that she had fell and “banged into a fixed pylon”. During a press conference on Monday March 25th the prosecutor was equally confident that Geneviève Legay “had not been touched by police officers. There was no direct contact between a police officer and this lady”.
However, the initial information in the investigation contradicts these statements. In a report made at 7.05pm on March 23rd a detective wrote: “According to the information gathered, the woman in her seventies was apparently knocked over by a man who was carrying a shield, of which there are no more details”.
During questioning another officer, who had taken part in the police charge that preceded the incident, stated: “We charged, so we did indeed push the people in front of us … It was when turning around after the charge that I noticed that a woman was on the ground.”
In an interview with Nice Matin newspaper published on Monday March 25th, President Emmanuel Macron said that “to keep calm you need to have responsible behaviour ...When you're fragile, when you can get knocked over, you don't go to areas which are banned and you don't put yourself in situations like that”. Once again, the initial information gathered as part of the investigation was overlooked when the president of the Republic insisted that “this lady was not in contact with the forces of order”.
However, on March 29th Jean-Michel Prêtre conceded at another press conference that Geneviève Legay had indeed been bumped into by a police officers and that this had caused her to fall.
Arié Alimi, the lawyer for Geneviève Legay's family, lodged a formal complaint against person or persons unknown for “joint enterprise assault with a weapon by persons acting with public authority and against a vulnerable person”. The lawyer said: “Our complaint also targets Georges-François Leclerc, prefect for the Alpes-Maritimes [département or county] for complicity in aggravated assault”.
Alimi said that “when Madame Legay woke in hospital on Saturday March 23rd she said that some police officers had twice come to her room and that one police officer had tried, with insistence, to make her say that it was a cameraman who had knocked her over and not the forces of order”.
Mediapart has also seen this statement: during Geneviève Legay's questioning the police officer indeed asked her about the presence of a journalist and asked if she remembered him and his actions. On the other hand when the victim stated that she was pushed by the police, the officer did not ask her to go into detail about her story.
Yet the possible line of enquiry that her fall was caused by a journalist was quickly discounted. “We were two metres from her as I explained to the police during my questioning,” the bodyguard of a journalist and cameraman, all three of whom were present during the police charge, told Mediapart. “Like us Geneviève Legay was in the front line, no one separated her from the police who suddenly charged,” he said. “I didn't see when she fell. I fell myself and I dragged the cameraman with me to protect him. When I got up I saw that she was on the ground with blood coming out of her mouth.”
Other witness statements collected by Mediapart confirm that Geneviève Legay was hit by “a man who was carrying a shield”. Thibault Huart, a 'street' medical aide who helps people hurt during demonstrations, said: “Geneviève Legay received a blow to the face from a shield and she collapsed at that moment. I was one or two metres from her before and during the police charge by the police. She did indeed receive a blow from the police to the face, which made her fall. Afterwards I had to deal with a journalist and I only saw her again when she was on the ground. I wanted to help her but some police officers stopped me from doing so.”
Another 'street medic', René Paysant, broadcast a video in which he criticised the police for stopping the 'street medics' from coming to the victim's assistance. Thibault Huart and other first-aiders are preparing to take legal action over failure to help a person in danger.
When contacted by Mediapart another witness, Bernard M., stated that he had seen Geneviève Legay “pushed by a police officer and his shield during the charge. Once she was on the ground she was dragged by a police officer. She received some kicks. And she was moved two metres from where she fell, near a cone, a pylon.” This retired company boss alerted police officers about the actions of their colleagues. “I was told to keep quiet. It was dreadful. I can't keep silent about what I witnessed.” Bernard's story raises big question marks about the state prosecutor's version of events, according to which Geneviève Legay crashed into a pylon. Were the blows that Bernard described responsible for some cracked rubs she suffered?
What is clear from all the questioning is that it was police superintendent Rabah Souchi who gave the order to charge. As one of the police officers questioned said “at one point I turned around and I heard Mr Souchi say 'Charge, charge!' Following these orders, we all charged, the three sections at the same time.”
Several police officers stepped over Geneviève Legay while she was already seriously hurt, stretched out and almost unconscious. A police major said: “I can confirm to you that my men stepped over those who had fallen to the ground.” Another officer explains that they had noticed “the presence of a person on the ground who I had to step over so I didn't trip over ...I continued on with my movement in company with two of my colleagues and it was once the advance ended that we noticed that it was a woman who was on the ground”.
When contacted by Mediapart, Superintendent Souchi said that “following these warnings, there were appropriate advances which led to a lady falling. How did she fall? It was an accident. And there's an investigation under the authority of the Republic's prosecutor”. These comments are, once again, contradicted by some police officers who said, during questioning, that they had pushed some demonstrators during the charge.
Nice's state prosecutor Jean-Michel Prêtre did not respond to numerous request for a comment.
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- The French version of this article can be found here.
English version by Michael Streeter