French policemen to stand trial over 2020 beating of black man

Three French policemen will be tried next week over the beating of a black music producer they say was not wearing a face mask during the Covid pandemic, in a rare police brutality case to go to court.

The assault on Michel Zecler, now 47, triggered renewed outrage in France over police violence, which victims and researchers say is systemic but authorities and law enforcement unions claim is limited to isolated cases.

Six years later, Zecler said he was still angry and wanted answers.

“Why me? I’ve been asking myself that question from the start,” Zecler told AFP.

“I expect this trial to hold the police officers accountable.”

Campaigners and rights groups saw the case as further evidence of what they see as the French police’s systemic racism, in a country where they say ethnic minorities receive far harsher treatment than white people.

Police brutality has also been thrust back into the spotlight by the student-led protests in recent weeks, including after a 14-year-old lost most of his teeth when a police officer appeared to fire a grenade at him at very close range.

Police stopped Zecler outside his Paris studio on November 21, 2020, accusing him of failing to wear a mandatory face mask and suspecting him of cannabis use.

They pushed him into the entrance of his office and violently beat him in an assault recorded by his studio’s security cameras.

Three police officers in the trial to last two weeks face charges of intentional violence committed in a group, as well as forgery when they tried to cover up their actions in an official report. They risk up to 15 years in jail.

The policemen’s lawyers, contacted by AFP, declined to comment before the trial.

For around five minutes, the producer suffered around 30 punches and truncheon blows to the face and body, according to the investigation.

The medical report noted craniofacial trauma, a wound to the lip and scalp, and a complete rupture of his biceps tendon, leaving him unable to perform his job for 45 days.

France’s ombudswoman has said police used “racist insults” during the assault, according to four witnesses.

But those charged denied this and the alleged racism was not retained in the indictment.

– ‘Don’t understand the hatred’ –

In their arrest report, the officers claimed the producer had hit them and tried to seize a truncheon, a version of events refuted by the camera footage that French media website Loopsider released several days later.

“I don’t understand the hatred I saw in their eyes,” said Zecler, who has a titanium anchor in his left arm after the ruptured tendon and says he still suffers nightmares.

“It was an assault that should never have happened,” he added.

“The fact they were wearing police uniforms was one of the reasons I didn’t defend myself. They are supposed to uphold law and order and act proportionately. Their conduct must be beyond reproach.”

After the footage of Zecler’s beating emerged, President Emmanuel Macron called out the force on racial profiling and urged police reform.

But Zecler questioned any such overhaul, including to avoid the disproportionate use of force.

“In recent years, I’ve seen numerous cases where I didn’t feel the police officers’s lives were in danger. There was no clear reason to draw a weapon or go that far,” Zecler said.

– Rare convictions –

Few cases of alleged police brutality make it to criminal court in France, as most are dealt with internally.

In another case to go before a judge, a French policeman is to be tried over shooting dead 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk at point-blank range in June 2023 outside Paris. Video footage also contradicted the police’s version of events in that incident, sparking nationwide protests.

Guilty verdicts in alleged police brutality cases are rare.

In 2024, a judge gave suspended jail sentences to three officers who inflicted irreversible rectal injuries on a black man, Theo Luhaka, during a stop-and-search in 2017.

Young men “perceived as Arab, black or from North Africa” are four times more likely to be stopped than the rest of the population, according to a report last year by France’s rights chief.

They are 12 times more likely to be subjected to more severe measures, including being frisked during checks, it said after a survey of more than 5,000 people.

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