A French police officer who shot dead a teenager outside Paris in 2023, sparking nationwide protests, will stand trial for violence causing death, an appeals court said Thursday.
The officer was initially due to appear in criminal court on a felony charge of murdering Nahel Merzouk, 17, in the driver’s seat of a car on June 27, 2023. But his lawyer appealed.
The Versailles Court of Appeal ruled that “it was not established that Florian M. intended to take the life of the driver at the moment of the shooting.”
“By restarting, Mercedes could have convinced Florian M. that it would endanger the physical integrity of third parties or itself,” the court added.
It said lesser charges should be tried in a non-jury criminal court.
Mobile phone footage of an officer shooting Nahel inside a car during a traffic stop on a busy road went viral after the incident, sparking days of protests.
Police initially maintained that Nahel drove his car into the officer. But this is contradicted by the video, which shows two officers standing by the parked car and one pointing a weapon at its driver.
After five months of detention, Florian M. was released from detention in November 2023.
View moreA Paris suburb mourns the death of a 17-year-old killed by police
A ‘scandalous’ verdict
Laurent-Frank Liard, a lawyer representing the officer, said the appeals court should have dropped the charges because his client had merely “followed the law”.
Frank Burton, a lawyer representing Merzouk’s mother, condemned the Versailles court’s decision as “scandalous” and “shameful”.
He said dropping the charges was tantamount to shielding the police officer from facing a jury.
Few cases of alleged police brutality make it to the criminal courts in France, as most are dealt with internally.
In 2024, a judge gave suspended prison sentences to three officers who caused irreversible rectal injuries to Theo Luhaka, a black man, during a 2017 stop-and-search.
France’s top court ruled last month against reopening an investigation into the 2016 death of a young black man in police custody in a case that sparked national outrage.
The family of Adama Traore, who died aged 24, has vowed to take the case to Europe’s highest court of rights.
In January, several thousand people protested in Paris over the death in custody of a Mauritanian migrant worker, 35. He died after being passed out in a police station following a violent arrest.
Read moreThousands protest in Paris against the death of a migrant worker in police custody
Last year, the European Court of Human Rights ruled against France for allegedly discriminating against a young man during an identity check, the first ruling on allegations of racial profiling.
(With FRANCE 24 AFP)
(Tags to be translated)France(T)Nahel(T)Death(T)France(T)Protest(T)Justice(T)Police Brutality
