Prosecutors make determination on charging French police officer over teen’s killing
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Prosecutors want a French police officer to stand trial for murder after the death of a teenager that led to violent protests nationwide.
In a statement on Tuesday, Nanterre prosecutors said they had concluded an investigation into the fatal shooting of Nahel Merzouk, a 17-year-old of North African descent.
A police officer fired at Nahel in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on June 27, 2023 after the teen failed to comply with an order to stop his car.
Nahel subsequently died from his wounds.
Two officers were investigated over the shooting. Prosecutors are now requesting that one of the officers faces a court trial.
It is now up to a judge to decide whether such a trial will take place.
Charges of murder complicity against the second police officer have been dropped.
Neither the lawyer for Nahel’s family nor the police officer’s lawyer were immediately available for comment.
A video shared on social media, verified by Reuters, showed two police officers beside Nahel’s car, a Mercedes AMG, with one firing his weapon as the driver pulled away.
Nahel’s death and the video were shared on social media, drawing widespread anger and provoking several nights of unrest in Nanterre and other cities across France.
At the heart of the unrest were long-standing accusations by rights group of systemic racism in the police.
There were hundreds of arrests during the protests, with tens of thousands of police officers deployed to quell further clashes.
Night-time curfews were put in place in some areas and public transport services halted.
Protesters burned cars, garbage and buildings and threw stones and fireworks at police as the riots stretched across multiple nights.
The unrest was not unprecedented. Back in 2005, the electrocutions of Zyed Benna, 17, and Bouna Traore, 15, after they hid from police in a power substation in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois sparked three weeks of rioting throughout France.
The nationwide riots raged through housing projects in troubled neighborhoods with large minority populations. Although they stemmed from the teens’ deaths, they were fueled by deeper problems of discrimination, unemployment and a sense of alienation from French society.
Source: independent.co.uk
