Adama Traoré case: new expertise exonerates the gendarmes

Text by: RFI Follow

New medical expertise made public this Friday concludes that the young man did not die from suffocation but from cardiogenic edema. It is an expertise requested by the examining magistrates who therefore exonerates the gendarmes while a previous expertise called them into question.

Publicity

According to the doctors, it is indeed a cardiac pathology which is at the origin of the death of the young man of 24 years, in 2016 at the barracks of Persan, in the Val d'Oise. An expertise which therefore exonerates the gendarmes accused by the family of Adama Traoré of being responsible for the death. In question: the ventral plating used by the police to arrest the young man.

A previous expertise requested by the relatives of Adama Traore had concluded that the death was due to the technique of arrest.

The gendarmes always assisted witnesses

For the family's lawyer, this new expertise has no value. He considers that the doctors were chosen to make these conclusions and recalls that according to him, the expert report is based in particular on false testimony. That of a person who claims to have seen the young man breathless just before his hectic arrest, but who refuses to testify before the judges.

The family of Adama Traoré remains convinced that it was the gendarmes, who, putting all their weight on the young man, caused his death. She therefore requests that they be placed under investigation. For the time being, they remain under the status of assisted witnesses.

The lawyer for the police believes that this new expertise closes the case and that no responsibility of the gendarmes can be engaged in this case.

Newsletter Receive all international news directly in your mailbox

Follow all international news by downloading the RFI application

• France
• Justice