The three police officers involved in the violent arrest of Théodore Luhaka in 2017 in Aulnay-sous-Bois were sentenced Friday evening to suspended prison sentences of three to twelve months.
Seven years after the violent arrest of Théo Luhaka in 2017 in Aulnay-sous-Bois, justice has delivered its verdict. The police officer who seriously injured the young man in the anus with a baton, rendering him crippled, was sentenced to twelve months in prison. The two other police officers present during the arrest received three months suspended prison sentences. “It’s a decision of appeasement, it’s a decision that we take as a victory because it says once again that Théo was a victim that day,” greeted Théo’s lawyer, M Vey .
“What we remember in this case is the conviction of the police,” added Théo’s sister at the microphone of BFMTV. According to her, her brother “was never into revenge”: “The most important thing for him was that the truth be reestablished.” The police officers’ lawyers also appreciated a “measured, moderate judgment”. “This evening, our client emerges from the Assize Court being convicted of a misdemeanor but not of a crime,” said Me Thibault de Montbrial, the lawyer for the main accused.
“Derisory” required penalties?
On Thursday, the attorney general requested a three-year suspended prison sentence against Marc-Antoine Castelain, 34 years old and author of the baton attack. The jurors ultimately found him guilty of voluntary violence, but did not take into account the fact that the blow had caused permanent disability for the victim. In addition to his suspended prison sentence, the police officer was also sentenced to a five-year ban on practicing on public roads and a five-year ban on carrying a weapon. Jérémie Dulin, 42 years old, and Tony Hochart, 31 years old, therefore received a three-month suspended sentence while the attorney general had requested six and three months suspended prison sentences.
Regarding the sentences requested on Thursday, which were also more severe than those finally given, the attorney general, Me Loïc Pageot, had estimated earlier in the day this Friday that they were perhaps going to “appear derisory”, before to justify them by the “absence of criminal records” of the three accused and the long time which has passed since the arrest. “As long as they are convicted for what they did, everything suits me,” assured the victim, who said he felt like a “living dead” since his arrest. Now aged 29, Théo Luhaka has irreversible after-effects despite two operations. At the end of the trial Friday evening, he did not wish to speak.