Demonstrators held for several hours at the police station, then released without any prosecution: with the spontaneous rallies against 49.3, lawyers, magistrates and politicians denounce “arbitrary” police custody, seeing it, as in other mobilizations in recent years, as a “repression of the social movement”.
According to the latest consolidated report from the Paris prosecutor’s office, 425 people were taken into police custody during the first three evenings of spontaneous demonstrations, from Thursday to Saturday. Only 52 of them were ultimately prosecuted. Figures for Sunday and Monday evenings are not yet available.
“It was really all kinds of profiles: students at the ENS, doctor, homeless, minors, trade unionists, teachers, people who came out of a conference and who were nasses”, described for AFP Me Coline Bouillon, one of the lawyers who assisted the demonstrators.
The people were placed in police custody for “participation in a group with a view to preparing violence”, or “concealment of the face” and remained 24 or 48 hours in police custody, said the lawyer, who speaks of “police custody-sanctions”, with “irregular records”, “empty in terms of proof of guilt”.
A group of lawyers of which she is a member intends to file a collective complaint for “arbitrary detention” and “obstructing the freedom to demonstrate”.
In a press release, the Syndicate of the Judiciary (SM), classified on the left, also denounced Monday these numerous placements in police custody, seeing it as a “repression of the social movement”.
“There is an instrumentalization of criminal law by the political power, in order to dissuade the demonstrators from demonstrating and exercising this freedom”, also believes Me Raphaël Kempf, who underlines the absence of “reparation” or “apology” .
Manuel Bompard, coordinator of La France insoumise, denounced Tuesday on France Info “this practice of abusive arrests” while Europe Ecologie Les Verts asked “the stopping of trap techniques, considered illegal”.
This practice had already been criticized during the movement of “yellow vests”. “The unprecedented number of preventive arrests and police custody”, was noted by the Defender of Rights in his 2018 report, citing December 8 when nearly 2,000 people were arrested throughout France.
“For several years, we have documented the use of laws that are too vague or contrary to international law to arrest, sometimes prosecute peaceful protesters. The French authorities must provide a legislative framework that protects the right to protest,” Amnesty International France tweeted.
For “fifteen years”, there has been a “judicialization of the maintenance of order”, notes Fabien Jobard, director of research at the CNRS and specialist in these questions.
He cites in particular the so-called Estrosi law of 2010 which creates the offense of “participation in a group with a view to committing violence or degradation” – initially voted to “fight against violence in gangs and in stadiums” but since used in demonstrations .
Between the “repressive scheme” and “preventive”, where arrests take place upstream of demonstrations or before significant violence or degradation is committed, “the cursor is more and more on the preventive side”, he underlines .
“There are no unjustified arrests, I can’t let that be said,” Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez told BFMTV.
“We arrest for offenses which, in our eyes, are made up”, but “48 hours (in police custody) to try to materialize the offense, it’s short”, he added.
Have instructions been issued for mass appeals? “No”, says a senior police officer, who adds that “when risky profiles are arrested, they are no longer agitating others”.
But with these numerous arrests, the “maneuver is risky”, adds another police officer specializing in these issues. According to him, they “expose the workforce, monopolize agents” and “risk radicalizing the demonstrators”.
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03/21/2023 15:40:43 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
