The young man suffered severe head injuries during an altercation in the southern French city amidst the riots following the police killing of Nahel M. Witness testimony and camera footage are helping judges in their investigation.
Hedi R. a été touché par le tir d’un Flash-Ball de la police et roué de coups par des policiers lors de la soirée d’émeute, à Marseille, dans la nuit du 1ᵉʳ au 2 juillet, sans avoir fait partie des émeutiers. Ici, le 9 juillet 2023.
The list of injuries sustained by 22-year-old Hedi R. in Marseille on the night of July 1 in Marseille occupies almost three of the 15 pages of an indictment that is as neutral as it is uncompromising. The document, which Le Monde had access to, was drawn up by the prosecutor's office in Aix-en-Provence. One police officer implicated in the violent incident is requesting that his detention be ended, while the other is requesting that his judicial supervision be lifted. The prosecutor is opposed to both requests. The court is expected to announce its decision at around 4 pm.
When he arrived in the emergency room at La Timone Hospital at 2:15 am, Hedi R. was in bad shape, with severe head trauma, a facial fracture, hematomas, various abrasions and hemorrhages. Intubated and sedated, he underwent emergency surgery "to perform a decompressive craniectomy" –in other words, removing part of his skull to relieve the pressure caused by a hemorrhage, likely caused by a rubber bullet. Since then, he celebrated his 22nd birthday on July 9 with half his skull missing. After several interviews, the pictures of his face have been widely shared. His mind is also affected. Two medical certificates, written on July 5 and 6, 2023 by doctors in the intensive care unit, add "acute stress syndrome" to this inventory of physical injuries.
What happened on the night of July 1, when Marseille was ablaze? There were thousands of rioters, and nearly 500 businesses were destroyed or looted during the violent clashes that followed the death of 17-year-old Nahel M., who was shot dead by the police after refusing to comply with orders during a traffic stop in Nanterre, west of Paris, on June 27. In two 15-page documents, based on witness statements, interviews and video surveillance footage, investigators have retraced the events that led to the indictment of four police officers from the city's anti-crime brigades (BAC) on charges of the intentional use of violence by public officials, one of whom has been detained since July 21.
Punching and kicking
The friend accompanying Hedi, Lilian P., was the first to give an account of the evening, in the late afternoon of July 2. The young man, a hairdresser who does extra work in the restaurant industry, explained his presence by stating that he was "curious" about what was happening in Marseille and that he often went out with Hedi in the evening. Around 2 am, Hedi called him: Did he want to join him to head into Marseille? Lilian agreed, took his car and parked it "near La Joliette" to meet his friend at the Vieux-Port. A few minutes later, as they were walking down the street, they passed five men at the corner of Rue d'Italie and Rue du Commandant-Imhaus, in the city's 6th arrondissement. He said that at that moment, he heard a voice call out to them, asking, "Where are you going?"
According to the investigators, "the witness did not have time to retaliate as one of the members of the group took something out of his pants, which looked like a telescopic baton, to try and hit him on the head. He dodged the blow and took off running." Hedi followed in panic. A distinctive "plop" sounded. He fell to the ground almost immediately.
According to Lilian P., "At least three members of the group threw themselves at him, kicking and punching, while he himself was about 10 meters away from the scene. Fearing for his life, he didn't intervene." And he saw his friend being dragged along the ground toward an alleyway, "out of his field of vision."
Interviewed two days later, Hedi completed his friend's account. "Next, it all happened very, very quickly (...) They shot at us with Flash-Balls. They only shot me in the head. From there, I fell to the ground. When I fell to the ground, the police picked me up and dragged me around the corner. They beat me up, they punched me in the head, they kicked me, they hit me with the truncheons."
Divergent versions
It is at this precise moment that the accounts provided by Hedi R. and Lilian P. diverge from those of the police. Probes by Marseille police detectives and the Inspectorate General of National Police (IGPN, an internal unit investigating police misconduct) immediately led to the opening of a judicial investigation on July 18, identifying a "column made up of seven police officers from the anti-crime brigade, deployed at the scene and at the times corresponding to the acts committed." Four of them, a major and three officers referred to as XH01 to XH04, were directly involved in the events. One of them, XH01, was indeed equipped with a rubber bullet gun, which some often refer to using the generic term "Flash-Ball."
Taken into custody, all the police officers described in unanimous terms "the insurrectionary context in which they had to intervene, synonymous with the incidents of violence on the public highway unprecedented in their intensity, with which these experienced officers had never been confronted." They also spoke of saturated radio traffic and overcrowded police custody cells. Further, they did not fail to mention the lack of visibility on the Rue d'Italie, the scene of the violence, which had no lighting whatsoever. More surprisingly, they all agreed that they had not witnessed any rubber bullets shots being fired at the scene. At the hearing on Thursday morning, however, police officer C.I., identified as the shooter, admitted to firing a shot. But "nothing proves" that it was the shot that wounded Hedi R., according to his lawyer. Added to this are some troubling statements about the role and actions of each of the police officers present during the incident.
The most senior officer, the major, began by asserting that he "never hit anyone on the ground." Then, confronted with CCTV footage, he admitted to having done so. Another member of the same team claimed "not to have been able to identify anyone on the CCTV footage, an explanation he applied to himself," noted the prosecutors. As for the rubber bullet shooter, he denied any involvement: "As far as I'm concerned," he told the investigating judge, "I did not witness the events. Once again, as the Rue d'Italie was completely dark, I did not witness the scene." But he added that "he was in an exhausted state, which may have affected his mental clarity," on the understanding that "the absence of more precise memories in no way indicates a desire to cover up." Lastly, two other officers present at the scene have no recollection of how the evening unfolded, nor of any "confrontation" with the two individuals.
Less than a minute
Four surveillance cameras support the testimonies of Hedi R. and Lilian P., according to the indictment issued by the prosecutors. "The use (...) of footage from the municipal video-protection system did not appear to call into question the general structure of the account as regards the path taken by the complainant and his friend," the text goes on to state.
Despite the fact that the cameras were sometimes positioned far from the action and that the low light levels degraded the quality of the footage, these four angles tell the story of an assault lasting less than a minute in total. The recording from the camera at the Ohel Torah synagogue, located at 96 Rue d'Italie, even provides " key evidence." It shows that at 1 hour, 56 minutes and 35 seconds – the time stamp begins when the camera is triggered and does not necessarily coincide with the actual time – Hedi, who had just been hit by the rubber bullet, is thrown off balance by a "violent kick (...) to the calves or ankles, causing the young man to fall to the ground. He then found himself in a sitting position, surrounded by several police officers."
Two seconds later, the same policeman who had just swept him off his feet gave him "two kicks in the direction of his pelvis or stomach." Lying down, Hedi was punched again. Then, at 1 hour, 56 minutes and 48 seconds, a new policeman appeared to deliver "a slap or a punch to the face or head." The young man managed to recover, sitting down as best he could, "with one hand on his face or head, preparing to get up," and took another "kick to the legs."
Another video, shot by a neighbor who witnessed the incident firsthand, adds a touch of humiliation to this treatment. As the young man left the scene "hesitantly" and totally stunned, an officer kicked him in the buttocks. He collapsed, unconscious, a few minutes later, just as the owner of an all-night grocery store and Lilian P. loaded him into the car that was to rush him to the emergency room of the Timone Hospital. The assailants, formally recognized according to the indictment, had already vanished into the night.
A closely followed hearing
On Thursday morning, among the 12 cases on the agenda of the investigating chamber of the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal, 35-year-old C. I. will be the focus of attention. This member of Marseille's BAC police unit, identified as the rubber bullet's shooter, is requesting that his incarceration be lifted. His hearing will be followed very closely: By Marseille police officers and their colleagues, who, since his incarceration, have been staging a series of walkouts and filing for sick leave. By higher-ups, who fear the impact of a decision to keep him in custody on their forces. And finally, by the judicial system, which is anxious to demonstrate its independence on this occasion, notably after the statements made by Frédéric Veaux, director general of the national police force, in an interview with Le Parisien: He said that "ahead of a possible trial, a police officer should not be in prison."
Another member of the group of police officers who is under judicial supervision, 51-year-old G. A., will also be heard on Thursday, in the hope of regaining his freedom. According to the indictment linked to his case, G. A. confirmed that he kicked Hedi R. "in the upper part of his body toward his head" but denies that he realized that the young man was seriously injured. Besides, wasn't he "dressed in a delinquent style," with his hood pulled down over his face? In passing, the indictment makes mincemeat of rumors distilled by anonymous police sources over the past 10 days or so: Far from the recidivist delinquent described off the record by those sources, Hedi R. had only been the subject of two minor proceedings, one for driving under the influence of narcotics and the other for driving without a license.
The prosecutors' recommendations call for upholding C. I.'s detention and G. A.'s judicial supervision. The opportunities for discussion, and even concealment, are all the more worrying for the courts since the police officers' initial hearings have revealed signs of collusion in the eyes of the judges. According to the prosecutors, the "need to avoid any fraudulent collusion" requires that the defendants be kept isolated from one another.
In an unusual move, the top judge of the Aix-en-Provence court of appeal, Renaud Le Breton de Vannoise, and the prosecutor, Marie-Suzanne Le Quéau, issued a joint communiqué on July 24, warning: "It is the sole responsibility of the judicial authorities to evaluate the facts and carry out the investigations required to establish the truth, in complete impartiality and free from pressure."
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