One of the chiefs and two officers of the municipal police of Hénin-Beaumont (Pas-de-Calais) were indicted on Thursday for violence against a young man and forgery and use of forgery, Agence France learned on Friday August 25. -Presse (AFP) with the prosecution, confirming information from Mediapart.
The facts in question date back to August 2022, recalled the public prosecutor of Béthune, Thierry Dran.
One of the agents was indicted for violence by a person holding public authority, the second for complicity in violence, and both for forgery and use of forgery in public writing. “The leader who allegedly covered all this” was indicted “for complicity in forgery and use of forgery,” Dran said.
According to Mediapart, during an intervention by a municipal police crew, called for an urban rodeo, one of the officers repeatedly sprayed tear gas into the face of a young man who was driving a motorcycle without a helmet, while he was driving.
false story
Two of the three police officers who participated in this intervention are suspected of having then made a false account in a report, indicating that the agent had used tear gas because the motorcyclist was accelerating in his direction, says the investigation site .
Asked by AFP, the mayor (RN) of Hénin-Beaumont, Steeve Briois, said he had sent “several months ago” a report to the prosecutor “following a large internal audit of the municipal police department “.
“As soon as we had feedback [of dysfunctions within the municipal police], I entrusted two civil servants, territorial executives recognized for their seriousness and their independence, with the mission of auditing the service”, assures- he. “It is appropriate, at this stage of the investigation, to respect both the secrecy of the investigation and the presumption of innocence”, insists Mr. Briois.