Agen Police Officers Face Trial for Alleged Assault on Moroccan Man

Three police officers on trial for alleged violence. The facts date back to August 2020. An Agen police officer would have struck a 20-year-old Moroccan man in front of the prison on August 13. At the bar, the defendant acknowledges "having had an unprofessional gesture." "I pushed him back, it was an instinctive reaction. We are not robots and machines. He was spitting on us telling us he was going to give us Covid," he defended himself.

A young woman filmed the scene on Rue Montaigne with her smartphone, reports La Dépêche du Midi. This 29-second video was shown in court. "You saw the kick! I’m shocked," we can hear. The Agen public prosecutor’s office seized the IGPN, and an internal investigation is underway. The expertise revealed that the police officer struck the victim on the shoulder and face with a kick. "I did not want to harm his physical integrity," insists the police officer. I tried a sweep, but I was off balance." "Yet on the video it is very visible. When you hit him he is handcuffed and held by your colleagues," the court also insists.

A suspicion of forgery concerning the arrest report written by another police officer at the Agen police station was raised during the hearing. The second police officer who appeared on Thursday is the author of the first report. The judges of the Gers court also criticized him for the drafting of variable PVs. The third civil servant accused was also to explain himself on a litigious PV but also on alleged violence in the custody cell against the young Moroccan arrested the previous evening. He acknowledges these facts, but not the forgery.

The young Moroccan has been in prison since last November and will remain there until March 2022 for acts of violence with a weapon committed in Bordeaux, accompanied by insults against police officers. He followed the hearing by videoconference from the prison.