what is he suspected of? Why such a controversy?

The provisional detention of a BAC agent in Marseilles has caused a stir in the ranks of the police. This policeman is suspected of violence during a night of riots following the death of Nahel.

A police officer is temporarily imprisoned in Marseille because he is suspected of having beaten Hedi, a 21-year-old young man on the night of July 1 to 2, 2023. Four police officers have been indicted for “intentional violence, having resulted in an ITT of more than 8 days”. The other three peace officers are under judicial supervision with a ban on practicing according to France info. A call to follow the “code 562” was put in place from the police stations of Marseille to protest against the imprisonment of the police officer of the BAC. This is a minimum service where the police only perform their essential activities. Other agents have increased sick leave in support.

According to Maître Jacques Preziosi, Hedi’s lawyer, this young man with no criminal record, victim of police beatings, “had simply come to party in Marseille with a friend”. France Bleu clarifies his words: “Police then rushed on them, attacked them with “batons and flash-ball shots in the head”, at a short distance. The shots reportedly hit his client, who fell to the ground. “He was then beaten with batons and kicked.” The toll is heavy for Hedi: an intracerebral hematoma, a broken jaw, and loss of vision in his left eye.

Emmanuel Macron does not wish to comment on the words of Frédéric Veaux

According to journalist Marc Endeweld, who delivered this indiscretion on Twitter, Frédéric Veaux even expressed to the police unions his intention to “get the policeman released”. Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior, meanwhile indicated that “the DGPN has the full confidence of the Minister”. Shortly after, Laurent Nunez, prefect of police of Paris, said shared “the words of the DGPN” on Twitter.

Sebastian Roché, director of sociology research at the CNRS, estimated for France info that the words of the boss of the DGPN are “a kind of revolt organized within the State, of which I do not have the ins and outs, but it is something without precedent.” The main magistrates’ unions considered the DGPN’s remarks “very serious”.

The President of the Republic, at the microphones of TF1 and France 2 this Monday, July 24, recalled that “no one in the Republic is above the law” but added that he understood “the emotion” of the police. Emmanuel Macron, who by his function is the guarantor of the independence of justice, here seems to be in between. He recalls that the police are not untouchable in the eyes of the law but by refusing to condemn the words of Frédéric Veaux which call into question equality before the law and the separation of powers.

Why are the words of Frédéric Veaux controversial?

Frédéric Veaux triggered an outcry in the ranks of the magistrates. The director general of the national police (DGPN) expressed his emotion at seeing a police officer from the anti-crime brigade (BAC) being placed in pre-trial detention in Marseille. “Knowing in prison keeps me awake,” he said in an interview with Parisian on July 23, because for him “before a possible trial, a policeman has no place in prison.”

As recalled by law L111-2 of the code of judicial organization: “The Constitutional Council has ruled that the principle of equality of all individuals before the law has constitutional value. This means that all litigants, whatever their nationality or condition, must be treated in the same way by the French courts.” Justice must therefore be equal for all. Kim Reuflet, president of the Syndicat de la magistrature, stressed to AFP this “fundamental principle in a democracy: the law is the same for all. Police officers who commit offenses in the exercise of their functions are liable to criminal sanctions.”

For Cécile Mamelin, vice-president of the Union of magistrates, “pretrial detention meets specific, legal criteria. It is a court decision which in no way prejudges guilt and which can be subject to appeal. The words of Frédéric Veaux seem to be an attack on equality before the law by encouraging the magistrates in charge of this investigation to release the imprisoned policeman. His word can be interpreted as a questioning of the separation of powers.

Shortly before the broadcast of Emmanuel Macron’s television interview, France Insoumise published a press release calling for “the restoration of republican order in the police and respect for the rule of law” in the face of the declaration of the director general of the national police. Faced with the president’s statements, Mathilde Panot, head of the LFI elected officials in the National Assembly, reacted: “Police sedition ignored at the highest level of the state. Serious. Macron refuses to sanction the police who undermine the republican order and defraud social security with false arrests. He prefers to target single mothers. Unworthy”.

This BAC official is suspected of police violence. More specifically, the Marseille public prosecutor’s office has opened a judicial investigation for “violence in meetings by a person holding public authority having resulted in an ITT of more than eight days with the use or threat of a weapon and by a person holding public authority in the exercise of their functions”. While four of the eight police officers initially placed in police custody were released, four were indicted and the official in question was placed in pre-trial detention by decision of the judge, who considered that the gravity of the facts was such as to deprive him of his freedom 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”.