an investigation opened and entrusted to the IGPN

An investigation was opened on Monday January 23 after a police officer hit a 26-year-old man with a truncheon, who then had to have his testicle amputated, during the demonstration against the pension reform in Paris, a indicated the Paris prosecutor’s office.

The investigation, opened for violence by a person holding public authority, was entrusted to the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN), said the prosecution.

The injured man, a Franco-Spanish engineer living in Guadeloupe, was first thrown to the ground by a police officer during the demonstration on Thursday January 19, according to his account reported on Sunday by his lawyer Me Lucie Simon. On photos circulating on social networks and videos broadcast by several media, we see another policeman hitting the young man in the crotch with a truncheon, who is still on the ground and holds a camera in one hand. After hitting him, the policeman leaves.

“We are not in a state of self-defense”

The scene took place at the time of clashes between demonstrators and the police, near the Place de la Bastille, with the throwing of projectiles and the use of tear gas.

“It’s such a strong blow that we had to amputate his testicle. An extremely violent and gratuitous gesture which borders on sadism”, estimated Me Lucie Simon, specifying that a complaint for voluntary violence having led to a mutilation by a person holding public authority was in the process of being filed. “It is a criminal qualification, we are not in a state of self-defense or necessity, I want proof of this from the images we have and the fact that he was not arrested afterwards. “, she had specified.

An internal administrative investigation was opened on Saturday, the Paris police headquarters had indicated. The prefect of police Laurent Nunez “asked the director of public order and traffic (DOPC) that the exact circumstances of the reported incident be clarified”, had specified the police prefecture. The facts occurred, according to the police headquarters, “in a context of extreme violence and as part of a police maneuver to arrest violent individuals”.

Source