the released man, what does he risk in the Hedi case?

The Marseille BAC policeman who admitted having shot the young Hedi at the LDB on the sidelines of the riots last July is released this Friday, September 1. His indictment still stands. What is he at risk?

[Mis à jour le 1er septembre 2023 à 13h16] He will be released from prison. The Marseille policeman indicted for having violently attacked the young Hedi, during the nights of the riots last July, was released this Friday, September 1 after spending 40 days in pre-trial detention. Justice has accepted the request for release filed by the lawyer for the 35-year-old BAC agent, according to information from Provence.

The man, however, is not out of the woods. He is placed under judicial supervision and is prohibited from exercising or coming into contact with his three colleagues also implicated in the Hedi affair. It is also to avoid any contact between police officers that the man was placed in pre-trial detention in July 2023.

If the policeman suspected of violence against Hedi has long denied the facts of which the 22-year-old young man accuses him, he ended up cooperating with the investigation and admitted to having fired a flash-ball in the direction of the victim. He explained his gesture by the fact that Hedi would have “armed his fist” to hit him with an object, a version which did not convince the magistrates.

Confession of the imprisoned policeman

“Here are now eight magistrates who have looked into this case and who have found the necessary elements to detain this gentleman. This reveals above all the need to protect the progress of the investigation. The police must assume this incarceration, which will in the sense of justice,” said Jacques-Antoine Preziosi, Hedi’s lawyer. CI’s attorney, the incarcerated policeman, has yet to make a public statement after the verdict. The prosecution also partially dismissed the request for judicial review of one of the three other officials of the BAC (Anti-Crime Squad) implicated in this case of police violence. He will be able to find his job but without being on the public highway.

In order to facilitate his release, the imprisoned policeman spontaneously admitted to having fired LBD at Hedi. He explained his gesture by the fact that this young man would have “armed his closed fist arm to throw an object”. The Advocate General was not convinced by this testimony: “the statements of the police officer, who admitted the facts, give “a perspective”, but the risk of “fraudulent consultation” must be taken into account. Pre-trial detention is required in order to “preserve the information until the interrogation” according to AFP.

What does the police officer risk after his confession in the Hedi case?

According to Article 222-12 of the Penal Code, the police officer charged in the Hedi case faces between seven and ten years’ imprisonment and a fine of 100,000 to 150,000 euros. Among the previous cases of police officers tried for LBD shootings, that of a police officer tried before the Paris Criminal Court for having injured a “yellow vest” by shooting from a defense bullet launcher during a demonstration on 2 February 2019. The man was fined 1,500 euros. During his trial in November 2021, the prosecution had requested a six-month suspended prison sentence against the police officer. The plaintiff suffered injuries to the lower face and abdomen.

Another example with facts dating back to July 8, 2009. Police officers intervened to repel demonstrators gathered in front of a squat in Montreuil, in Seine-Saint-Denis. The overly muscular use of the LBD on one of them had become a symbol of the violence of the police. The police officer involved had been found guilty of the shooting and sentenced on appeal in 2018 to 18 months in prison suspended and 24 months prohibited from carrying a weapon.

What happened between the police and Hedi?

Since July 20, a police officer belonging to the Anti-Crime Brigade (BAC) of Marseille has been in pre-trial detention following accusations of violence brought by Hedi, a young man aged 22. This affair has aroused great interest in public opinion and has highlighted certain tensions within the police forces. The charges against the police officer relate to violence in a meeting by a person holding public authority resulting in Total Incapacity for Work (ITT) for more than eight days, with the use or threat of a weapon. Of the four police officers indicted in this case, three of them finally admitted to having exercised violence on Hedi. These acts were filmed by CCTV cameras, leaving little room for doubt as to the veracity of the victim’s allegations.

Hedi, supported by direct witnesses and elements brought to Provence, accurately described the violence he allegedly suffered that day. Testimonials supported by a recent video published by Konbini, which helped bolster the credibility of the victim’s allegations. This visual evidence had thus put in difficulty the version defended by the incriminated police officers.

If the facts took place on the sidelines of a night of riots in Marseille, Hedi and his friend did not participate in the urban violence according to the young man victim of violence. They were content to follow a helicopter flying over the city of Marseille when they came across four or five BAC police officers in civilian clothes, but carrying a weapon in their belts, a flash-ball around their necks and equipped with truncheons, near Cours Lieutaud . “We said good evening to them, but we quickly understood that they were angry and closed to discussion,” Hedi added in his testimony.

When questioned by the police about what they were doing, Hedi and his friend ran off, but the former was hit by a flashball which pinned him to the ground. The two young men were then targeted, the police would have attacked them with “batons and flash-ball shots in the head”, at short distance, according to statements by Hedi’s lawyer, Maître Jacques Preziosi , reported by France Blue. The balance sheet is heavy for Hedi: an intra-cerebral hematoma, a broken jaw and loss of vision in the left eye. Left on the ground, Hedi says he found the strength to move and found himself in front of a grocery store, whose manager took him to the hospital. Arrived in serious condition, he is called “the miracle” by the medical team.

What is the policeman imprisoned in Marseille suspected of?

The BAC official placed in pre-trial detention is suspected of police violence. More specifically, the Marseille public prosecutor’s office opened a judicial investigation for “violence in a meeting by a person holding public authority resulting in an ITT of more than eight days with the use or threat of a weapon”.

While four of the eight police officers initially placed in police custody were released, the four others were charged and the official in question was placed in pre-trial detention by decision of the judge, who considered that the seriousness of the facts was such as to deprive him of his liberty pending further legal proceedings. The other three agents are under judicial supervision with a “prohibition on entering into contact with the co-authors, the victim and the other protagonists of the case and a prohibition on exercising the professional activity of a police officer”. A new investigation was opened on July 24 by the Marseille prosecutor’s office to seek to establish the responsibility of Marseille police officers after the complaint filed by Hedi, reports Provence.

The detention of the police officer at the origin of the anger of the profession

The imprisonment of the Marseille policeman on July 20 was the trigger for the ongoing protest movement within the police. An anger such that it pushes certain agents to desert the police stations or to provide only the minimum service. After a week of silence, the Minister of the Interior finally met with the police unions on Thursday July 27. A meeting that “satisfied” the centrals who all described a minister “attentive” to their demands and “rather open to all discussions” according to Grégory Joron, secretary general of the SGP police-UFO unit union, contacted by BFM TV.