Marseille Riots: Court Extends Detention of Officer Accused in Hedi Assault Case

On Thursday, the investigating chamber of the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal followed the requisition of the public prosecutor’s office by ordering the continued detention of the agent suspected, along with three colleagues, of having seriously injured Hedi, a 22-year-old man, during the riots in Marseille, reports franceinfo. The victim was absent from the hearing due to the serious consequences of the terrible police violence. "He was so exhausted this morning that he was unable to get up," lamented his lawyer Jacques-Antoine Preziosi, before welcoming the court’s decision. "Justice is being served and we must let it do its work. The police must assume this incarceration which goes in the direction of justice."

After lying denials, the policeman finally admitted to having fired an LBD against Hedi, who, according to him, had "armed his fist to throw an object" in the direction of the agents. His "fallacious denial" initially "discredited all his statements," the president of the investigating chamber of the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal said. "The policeman confessed, we finally have a confession, that he was the LBD shooter. He is the one who shot Hedi. Until now, everyone denied it," said Jacques-Antoine Preziosi. "He is guilty of having lied again. He tells completely incoherent things and tells stories in a miserable tone."

On July 20, four BAC police officers in Marseille had been indicted for "intentional violence resulting in incapacity for work (ITT) exceeding eight days, aggravated by three circumstances in that they were committed in a group, with use or threat of a weapon and by a person holding public authority in the exercise of his functions." Only the agent suspected of being the source of an LBD shot was placed in detention. The three other police officers were placed under judicial supervision with "a ban on contacting the co-authors, the victim and the other protagonists, and a ban on exercising the professional activity of police officer."