Judicial investigation opened after the death of Adama Traoré's cousin

Police patrols at night.

(Illustration) -

The Versailles prosecutor's office announced on Friday the opening of a judicial investigation for "research into the causes of death" after the controversial drowning in the Seine of Mahamadou Fofana, close to Adama Traoré, on Sunday, in Marly-le -Roi ( Yvelines).

The prosecution also specified that it had seized the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) "as soon as the death is observed" and, following its report, opened a judicial investigation in order to determine the causes and circumstances of the accident.

According to a press release, a second judicial investigation, against X, for acts of organized gang theft and concealment of theft has been opened.

The facts go back to Sunday evening.

Mahamadou Fofana, 35, was caught loading a motorcycle into a van and fled when the police saw him.

According to the police, Mahamadou Fofana tried to escape in a van before parking his vehicle and throwing himself into the Seine, in a place where there is no CCTV camera capable of shedding light on the circumstances of the death.

"All the signs point to a drowning"

Still according to the police, the man began to panic when he arrived in the middle of the river and tried to turn around.

He found himself in trouble and two officers dived into the water to try to rescue him, without success.

According to a first pre-autopsy report cited by the prosecutor of Versailles, Maryvonne Caillibotte, “all the signs point to a drowning” of Mahamadou Fofana.

The family of the deceased, however, categorically questioned the version presented by the police and the prosecution.

It has been exploding since light was shed on the circumstances of the tragedy and denounces possible police violence.

Assa Traoré, who presents himself as his cousin and is the figurehead of the Adama committee founded after the death of his brother in 2016 in the wake of his arrest by the gendarmes, particularly underlined the presence of injuries to the head of the victim .

"His skull was completely deformed, as if he had been put fifteen times with a baton in the head," she said after seeing the body of her relative in the morgue.

The prosecutor of Versailles for her part mentioned Wednesday "skin abrasions on the skull which are recent and some on the right shoulder", specifying that, according to the lawyer, they "did not play a role in the mechanism of deceased ".

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