French push against domestic abuse may overlook some police

PARIS — Chahinez Daoud was 31 years old in May when her former husband shot and burned her alive in the town of Merignac, near Bordeaux. Two months earlier, she had filed a complaint for domestic violence, but it was mishandled and no action was taken. She was among scores of women killed annually by a partner in France — 102 last year.

The police officer who took her complaint had himself been allegedly convicted of habitually beating his wife, according to a newspaper investigative report. This has spurred calls for action over the long-taboo subject of domestic violence by some French officers.

Yet despite a new official push to tackle domestic abuse, such violence by law enforcement remains unaddressed. Victims and lawyers are pushing for solutions such as training and independent internal police investigations.

“There were many human failings leading to my client not being protected,” Solène Roquain-Bardet, Daoud’s lawyer, told The Associate d Press. “This latest news is astounding.”

Daoud’s ex-husband had been in prison for domestic violence against her until December 2020. After his release, he attacked her again, and in March this year, she filed another complaint at the Merignac police station. But the police officer’s filing was illegible and never got properly forwarded to court authorities, according to a state review of how the case was handled.

State inspectors wrote that there are “serious doubts regarding the care with which the danger evaluation documents were completed.”

One key fact missing from the state inspection document: The officer who took her complaint had himself allegedly been found guilty in February 2021 of “habitual violence” against his ex-wife, the Canard Enchaîné, a reliable, well-sourced weekly, reported last month.

He received a suspended 8-month prison sentence and was in disciplinary proceedings when he took Daoud’s complaint. Only after her killing was he moved out of a public-facing job, according to Canard Enchaîné.

For Daoud’s lawyer, “there’s a leniency by the hierarchy which tells itself that, in the end, taking complaints is not that big a deal.”

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin this month made fighting domestic abuse a top priority.

Regarding the officer who took Daoud’s complaint, he told the daily Le Parisien that “his superiors should not have allowed him to be in contact with the public.”

In another layer of dysfunction, the officer’s conviction was not disclosed to state inspectors reviewing the events leading to Daoud’s death. Darmanin said the IGPN police oversight agency was investigating whether there was an intentional attempt to hide that. If so, he said, “sanctions will be taken.”

Police stations in the region where Daoud was killed declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation, or to say whether other complaints the officer took were under review. The French Interior Ministry and the Ministry for Equality Between Women and Men did not respond to requests by The Associated Press for comment.

There are no known studies in France on the issue of intimate partner violence involving police, though the problem within law enforcement in France and elsewhere is not new.