French justice working overtime following mass teen arrests
Fast-track trials sparked by unrest over police killing
CRETEIL, France — At 19, he was the oldest of the group of teens accused of lobbing Molotov cocktails at the police station of their suburban hometown.
“Why?” the judge asked Riad, who was taken into custody after he was identified in video surveillance images of the group from June 29, the second night of nationwide unrest following the police shooting of another suburban teenager outside Paris.
“For justice for Nahel,” Riad said. Slumped and slightly disheveled after five nights in jail, he said he didn’t know about the peaceful march organized by Nahel Merzouk’s family. He explained the cellphone photo of him holding a Molotov cocktail was “for social media. To give an image.”
In all, more than 3,600 people have been detained in the unrest across France since the death of Nahel on June 27 at age 17, according to the Interior Ministry. The violence, which left more than 800 law enforcement officers injured, has largely subsided in recent days.
French courts are working overtime to process the arrests with fast-track hearings around an hour long and same-day sentencing.
The prosecutor noted that Riad had learned where to acquire incendiary devices on Snapchat, the social network that the French government has singled out as fueling the unrest. Riad’s lawyer noted his record was clean.
By the end of Tuesday, Riad's sentence was fixed: three years, with a minimum of 18 months behind bars, barred from his hometown of Alfortville for the duration of the term.
But the mood in France is stern after unrest that officials estimate caused 1 billion euros (more than $1 billion) in damage. The killing of 17-year-old Nahel came during a June 27 traffic stop. The shooting, which was captured on video, immediately stirred up long-simmering tensions between police and young people in housing projects and disadvantaged suburbs.
Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti issued an order on Friday that demanded a “strong, firm, and systematic” judicial response. Hearings began the next day, as the unrest continued into the night.
The United Nations rights office said the unrest showed it was time for France to reckon with its history of racism in policing, rather than lash out in punishment, saying the government needed to ensure the use of force “always respects the principles of legality ... and accountability.”
Many French lawmakers demand the maximum penalty — and fast.
Olivier Marleix, a lawmaker from the conservative Republicans party, called for all cases involving the unrest to be handled within 100 days.
“Not to punish this would be an injury to all our law enforcement,” he said Tuesday in the National Assembly.
The officer accused in the death of 17-year-old Nahel, meanwhile, is charged with voluntary homicide but has yet to appear in a courtroom or even have a court date set.