Twenty-four hours after his tough arrest during the banned demonstration in memory of his brother Adama, Youssouf Traoré was released from hospital on Sunday July 9 at midday and went to a rally in front of a Paris police station for a another man also arrested the day before.
In a video posted at the beginning of the afternoon on Twitter by the account “The truth for Adama”, Youssouf Traoré, 29, appears with a swollen right eye and a torn t-shirt sleeve. According to this account, authenticated by AFP, the ventral tackle he suffered during his arrest caused him ” a broken nose, head trauma with eye contusion, revealing thoracic, abdominal and lumbar contusions “. Youssouf Traoré’s lawyer, Me Yassine Bouzrou, announced this Sunday that he had filed a complaint for intentional violence.
Press release :
Yssoufou Traore was arrested yesterday during the march demanding justice in the case of the death of his brother Adama Traore.
Yssoufou Traore was the victim of violence committed by BRAV-M police officers who seem disproportionate and illegitimate, pic.twitter.com/yod6DLKPpE— The Truth For Adama (@laveritepradama) July 9, 2023
According to a source familiar with the matter, Youssouf Traoré was accused of having ” struck a blow to a police commissioner at the start of the rally, Place de la République. The images of his arrest filmed by several witnesses – we see him resisting then being tackled and held face to the ground by several police officers – provoked condemnations from several left-wing elected officials on social networks.
In the images filmed by witnesses at the end of the Paris rally on Saturday, which took place peacefully according to AFP journalists, we also see a woman being violently thrown to the ground by a police officer and journalists assaulted by the police.
Florian Poitout, photographer for the Abaca press agency, said on Saturday evening on Twitter that he would seize ” in the next few hours » the IGPN (General Police Inspectorate), to file a complaint against two police officers from the BRAV-M, the Motorized Brigade for the Repression of Violent Action. He specifies in a press release that he was “ thrown to the ground and beaten by BRAV-M police officers “, a unit already implicated in several cases of police violence. He adds that his camera was damaged after being thrown to the ground by a police officer.
An administrative investigation has been opened to shed light on the violence, the police headquarters told AFP.
A second man also arrested
Youssouf Traoré’s police custody for violence against a person responsible for public authority and rebellion has been lifted due to his hospitalization, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office, which did not give any information on his state of health. . At this stage, the rest of the procedure is not known. Contacted by AFP, his sister Assa, a figure in the fight against police violence, said she was going with Youssouf Traoré to the police station in the Vᵉ arrondissement of Paris to collect her belongings.
Approximately 2,000 people gathered in Paris on Saturday despite the ban from the police headquarters behind Assa Traoré in memory of his brother Adama, who died shortly after his arrest by gendarmes in July 2016. A second man, identified as Samir by members of the Adama committee , was arrested during this rally. The committee called for mobilization massively to obtain his release on Sunday July 9 at 2 p.m. in front of the police station of the Iᵉʳ arrondissement of Paris.
Shortly before 3 p.m., around fifty people, including LFI deputies Eric Coquerel, Jérôme Legavre and Thomas Portes, were present in front of the police station protected by eight police officers.
A new mobilization scheduled for next Saturday
The associations, unions and political parties classified on the left (among which LFI, EELV, CGT and Solidaires) at the origin of the ” citizen marches ” against the police violence organized the day before in France, demanded on Sunday the “ release without conditions or prosecution », of Youssouf Traoré and the second man, « long-time working-class activist “. The organizations are also calling for the abandonment of the legal proceedings announced by the police headquarters against Assa Traoré, ” organizer » of the banned Parisian gathering according to the authorities.
” This call for mobilization was widely supported by trade unions, associations and politicians. Therefore, the responsibility lies with everyone. We won’t let it go “, is it also written in the press release calling for a new “ broad mobilization against police violence, Saturday July 15 in Paris.
(With AFP)
Right and majority upwind against left-wing elected officials present at the forbidden march for Adama Traoré
” stunned », « obvious provocation », « shame on them “: the presence of rebellious deputies and environmentalists at the Parisian rally on July 8, banned in memory of Adama Traoré, caused a lot of reaction from the right and the presidential camp, which accuses LFI of leaving the ” republican field “. La France insoumise considers that it had to be ” alongside the family “.
” I am appalled to see elected representatives of the Nation, sporting the tricolor scarf, mute and smiling while hearing demonstrators chanting “everyone hates the police “, tweeted Sunday the Renaissance president of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet.
” The provocation is obvious (…)it is double when you are an elected official of the Republic “, abounded Aurore Bergé, the president of the Renaissance group at the Palais-Bourbon. The tone has gone up a notch between the government and LFI since the riots. The executive has repeatedly denounced the refusal to call for calm in the movement launched by Jean-Luc Mélenchon. “ When La France insoumise does not condemn the violence, it justifies it. When they say that certain buildings should not be set on fire, they mean that for others it doesn’t matter. They came out of the Republican field “, hammered Saturday, July 8 in the newspaper The Parisian Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.
The bosses of the right, who since the riots outbid security proposals sometimes in line with the far right, are also upwind. ” The factious and dangerous deputies of the Nupes (…) have once again trampled on our laws and the authority of the state. Intolerable “, tweeted the boss of the Republicans, Eric Ciotti. “ Shame on them “Launched the boss of LR senators, Bruno Retailleau.
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