Faced with the new recordings revealed by La Provence, showing that agents allegedly covered up police violence, the Marseille town hall filed a complaint against eight of them. The latter were also suspended.
Eight agents from the municipal police and the urban supervision center (CSU) of Marseille were suspended by the town hall this Tuesday, June 4. A sanction which echoes the case of suspicions of police violence which would have been covered up by the CSU in May 2023. At the time, images were broadcast on BFMTV showing municipal police officers hitting a potentially drunk man after an altercation. It was then that the surveillance camera suddenly changed angle and no longer filmed the scene. The city of Marseille today regrets the fact that these elements were not brought to the attention of the courts sooner.
A weapon on the corner of the table and a deliberate camera movement?
In May 2023, the town hall opened an administrative investigation after images of police brutalizing a man were broadcast on BFMTV. For its part, the daily La Provence revealed this weekend the existence of audio files seeming to prove the involvement of the CSU with, according to Le Parisien, recordings made by agent Sébastien Florenti. A recording could notably prove that the camera movement was voluntary. On sick leave, this agent now claims to be the victim of harassment since he reported these actions. He also mentions other dysfunctions within the CSU, “a service weapon left on a corner of the table, or even watching series instead of public highway surveillance screens” we can read in the columns of Le Parisien .
Suspensions, complaints and disciplinary advice
“The City of Marseille learned through the press of the existence of a video, which dates from May 2023, relating to serious facts concerning agents of the Municipal Police and the Urban Supervision Center” indicates the municipality in a press release . It also indicates the immediate suspension of the seven agents concerned, pending the holding of a Disciplinary Council. “The town hall is filing a complaint against these seven agents so that justice can take the action it deems appropriate.”
Concerning the eighth agent, Sébastien Florenti, “at the origin of the broadcast of videos and recordings made outside any legal framework”, the town hall decided to refer the matter to the public prosecutor. A complaint was filed against him for disseminating confidential images. He is suspended as a precautionary measure, pending the investigation. The Marseille municipality finally indicates that if the dating of the images is accurate, namely May 2023, the latter “have largely exceeded their legal retention period and cannot be used within a legal framework”. For his part, Me Victor Gioia, Sébastien Florenti’s lawyer, judges the town hall’s decision to be “incomprehensible” while his client simply played “the role of whistleblower” in this story. He specifies that the seven pendant lights “are aimed at lamps”.