Riots over police cruelty in third week
FRANCE: Police fought running battles with protesters in Paris and other French cities amid fury over the brutal arrest of a black man by four white officers. At least 50 people were detained after clashes with riot police in and around Paris, Rouen, Normandy and Lille in northeast France.
About 300 people have been arrested since the unrest began a fortnight ago. Anticipating violence, shops had shut early in the Barbes district of Paris as 400 people gathered to denounce what they said was police racism. Stones were thrown at riot police, who responded with tear gas.
President Francois Hollande’s government fears the unrest will escalate into riots across France’s suburban council estates, which are home to immigrant communities, high unemployment and a flourishing drugs trade.
The protests started when video footage emerged of the arrest of Theo Luhaka, 22, from Aulnaysous-Bois, a suburb of Paris, on February 2. He was allegedly beaten and sexually assaulted by an officer with a truncheon. One officer has been placed under investigation on suspicion of rape, and three others for assault.
Luhaka was discharged from hospital yesterday but ordered to rest for two months after being diagnosed with severe internal injuries. According to Luhaka’s family, doctors fear he will suffer lifelong incontinence.
A criminal inquiry is under way, and police regulators are investigating claims that the officer who allegedly raped Luhaka also beat up another black man during an arrest a week earlier.
The officer, who has not been named, denies rape and told investigators that the incident occurred when he and his colleagues tried to search a man with convictions for drug dealing, according to a leaked version of the transcript of his interrogation.
He said that other locals, including Luhaka, surrounded the officers to try to prevent the arrest. They sought to detain Luhaka but he fought back.
‘‘I had just seized his arm when I received a punch on the forehead. I was stunned for a few moments. I realised then the individual would do anything to get away. He was struggling, punching incessantly, gesticulating all over the place even with his legs,’’ the officer said.
‘‘I then used my telescopic truncheon and hit him, aiming for the back of his thighs. The individual continued to struggle.’’
— The Times