The investigative chamber of the Versailles Court of Appeal confirmed, Thursday, August 10, the continued detention of the police officer who shot Nahel M., 17, killed during a road check on June 27 in Nanterre after refusing to comply. His death was followed by a week of urban riots.
“The Versailles investigating chamber has, in accordance with the requisitions of the public prosecutor’s office, confirmed the order rejecting the request for release,” the court of appeal announced in a press release. “The indicted is therefore kept in detention,” it also read.
Indicted for intentional homicide and imprisoned since June 29, this police biker, Florian M., 38, had requested his release on July 6, a request rejected by the investigating chamber. He had appealed the decision on August 1, according to the court.
Thirty-one investigations entrusted to the IGPN and the IGGN
His lawyer, Laurent-Franck Liénard, announced to Agence France-Presse to form “an appeal in cassation”, considering that “this detention is illegal: it is not justified in law or in fact”. The policeman “has nothing to do in prison: we will fight until he gets out”, he added. His stay in prison is “totally hopeless” for him, had estimated Me Liénard, at the microphone of BFM-TV on July 6.
The death of Nahel M. was the trigger for several nights of urban violence in the Paris region and in the rest of the country. They were marked by scenes of looting, the firing of fireworks at public buildings and fires.
Three police officers from the RAID, an elite unit, were indicted Thursday in Marseille for “violence with a weapon resulting in death without intention of giving it” and placed under judicial supervision in the investigation into the death of Mohamed Bendriss, 27 years old, on the sidelines of the riots on the night of July 1 to 2. Mohamed Bendriss had lost his life after collapsing while riding a scooter. It was during the autopsy of the body of this married man, father of a child and whose widow is expecting a second child, that the trace of what could be the impact of a Defense Ball Launcher (LBD) shot.
The police are also implicated in the serious injuries of several people in France during this week of riots. In total, thirty-one investigations were entrusted to the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN), the “police of the police”, and one to its equivalent for the gendarmerie, the IGGN.
