Twenty-three blind people were recorded by AFP during the “yellow vest” movement in the winter of 2018-2019. None obtained the conviction of the author of his injury.
Only one trial took place, which ended in an acquittal, the other complaints being examined, stuck or closed.
In the wake of this historic movement, with 2,500 demonstrators and 1,800 members of the police injured in one year according to the Interior, many of these claimed “yellow vests”, sometimes “high school students” or simple “passersby”, told end 2019 to AFP of lives brought to a halt by LBD 40 shots or grenade throwing.
As Vanessa Langard, injured on December 15, 2018 on the Champs-Elysées in Paris, said, they still had hope, which kept them “a little going”, of justice which would eventually pass.
But five years later, Ms. Langard and her comrades in misfortune are still waiting, in these cases where the identification of the author of the injury and then the analysis of the legality of the intervention are cardinal.
According to information gathered by AFP from the complainants, their lawyers or the courts, out of the 23 cases at the time, no police officer or gendarme was convicted.
Six classifications and two dismissals have already been pronounced, as for Hedi Bahrini, 45, who lost his left eye on December 1, 2018 in Puy-en-Velay: he learned in March 2022 of the death of the gendarme author of the dispersion grenade fire.
Eleven other investigations, including ten under the aegis of judges, are underway, without indictment. In several cases, those responsible for the injuries from the police seem to have been identified but the ballistic assessments are delayed or are disputed.
“I have no news about the case or my lawyer, it’s nothing,” summarizes Alexandre Frey, struck by an LBD shot on December 8, 2018 in Paris.
“These cases, where police officers can be implicated, (…) are a little put aside,” laments Me Claire Dujardin, lawyer for Arthur, 29, who was blinded in one eye on December 29, 2018 in Toulouse.
“I know that justice is broken but (…) is it independent?” asks Olivier Fostier, blind in one eye on March 23, 2019 in Charleville-Mézières. “The important thing is to be recognized as a victim. It was involuntary,” he believes, while saying he wants the person who injured him with the grenade to “recognize” his act.
Russian mountains
Legal disputes are a roller coaster for some, such as David Breidenstein, injured on March 16, 2019 in Paris: after the disappointment of the dismissal of the case, the joy of relaunching the case on appeal.
Three other investigations in Paris and Rennes are, however, more advanced, with indictments.
The blinding of Jérôme Rodrigues, a figure of the movement, could be judged by the Paris departmental criminal court. Two officials are indicted.
Only one blind person out of 23 benefited from a trial: Jean-Philippe, a 16-year-old high school student at the time, victim according to him of a “lost” LBD shot on December 6, 2018 in Béziers. On October 20, the police officer in question was acquitted with the benefit of the doubt. “I am surprised and shocked,” reacted the young man, now 21 years old. The public prosecutor appealed.
“Pirate”
In addition to the criminal route, some try to have the State condemned before administrative justice or refer the matter to the Compensation Commission for Crime Victims (Civi). But again, it often gets stuck.
Were they at least able to rebuild their lives?
An LBD shot caused “Jim” to lose his eye in December 2018 in Bordeaux. He “is not doing well”, confides his lawyer, Me Ophélie Berrier. A new operation could come.
On the phone, Alexandre Frey is initially positive: “I’m still alive, I’ve managed to get over it, I’m learning to live with my new person.” However, he quickly becomes gloomy about his “completely wasted life”… a word already used in 2019.
“It’s a daily battle,” says Vanessa Langard: on the menu, persistent political commitment, humiliation in the street when she is called a “pirate” or photographed, or even medical care in the face of “pain attacks” tenacious.
Some also see loved ones moving away, facing a gap of incomprehension. More prosaically, finding a job with this stigma and these after-effects is difficult. “You are like everyone else”, but for employers, “you are a bandit”, annoys Ramy Hala, who lost his eye at 15 in front of his high school in Vénissieux, on December 6, 2018.
If some campaign in a collective against police violence, the “Mutilated for Example”, others stay far from the aftermath of the movement, like Arthur, the injured man from Toulouse, “not really close to the demands”.
But this unemployed man harbors a feeling of injustice: “If I had done that to a police officer or to someone in the street, I would have been in prison for a long time.”
In their sights, the numerous “yellow vests” condemned in immediate appearance, an accelerated procedure, for violence against police officers, or in emblematic cases such as the fire of the Puy-en-Velay prefecture and the ransacking of the ‘Triumphal arch.
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11/20/2023 08:00:14 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
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2023-11-20 07:01:00
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