Racist descent of the France-Morocco match: the suspects are free!

"I couldn’t believe it," said one of the seven defendants. Considering that their arrests in a bar in the 18th arrondissement of Paris on the evening of the France-Morocco match on December 14, 2022 "were not within the scope of action assigned to the police that evening," the Paris judicial court canceled them as well as the reports drawn up on the occasion, before canceling the entire procedure against the defendants for "irregularities," reports Ouest France. A position that Georges Sauveur, lawyer for two defendants, had supported by claiming that their "arrests" were "illegal."

What about the profile of the defendants? Among them is Marc de Caqueray-Valmenier, considered the former leader of the far-right group "the Zouaves", dissolved in January 2022. This 24-year-old man is already under investigation for violence during an Eric Zemmour campaign meeting against anti-racist activists. He has also been convicted of violence committed in 2017. The six other accused, born between 1999 and 2002, live in the Paris region or Rouen. Temporary workers, law or business students, a real estate agent living in the 16th arrondissement of the capital or a multi-purpose employee of the Lidl distributor "who says he left the army due to disagreement with government policy" are among them.

All were part of the 38 people arrested in a bar in the 17th arrondissement. While 31 of them "had benefited from a dismissal or alternatives to prosecution," the seven others were prosecuted for "participation in a group with a view to intentional violence or degradation" and, for some, carrying weapons.