- Hit by an LBD shot during a demonstration against the Labor Law in 2016, a Rennes student had lost the use of his left eye.
- Rights defender Jacques Toubon has requested disciplinary action against two police officers.
- He believes that they made "disproportionate use" of their weapon that day.
The demonstration against the Labor Law had been violent on April 28, 2016 in Rennes. During the scuffles with the police, a 20-year-old geography student was hit by an LBD shot, losing the use of his left eye. Seized by the young man, the Defender of Rights demanded disciplinary proceedings against two police officers for “disproportionate use” of their defense ball launcher.
At the time of the events, two police officers, a brigadier-chef and a peacekeeper, had used their weapons but "it is impossible to determine with certainty the author of the shooting having reached" the victim, indicates Jacques Toubon in a decision of December 10, 2019. "I have the intimate conviction that the gentleman who shot me knows very well that he shot me and that he is protecting himself", assures Jean-François Martin .
The conditions of use of the LBD "not met" according to him
At the time of the shooting, the police were distant "35 to 48 meters" from the people targeted, while "the optimum shooting is over a distance of 30 meters", according to the Defender of Rights. In addition, the targeted people were "on the opposite bank" of the Vilaine "in a compact group made up of projectile launchers in the midst of peaceful demonstrators".
"The separation by a watercourse of the police officers responsible for shooting with the targeted people de facto prevented any assistance to the potential affected people", he underlines, thus estimating that the conditions allowing the use of LBD "n 'were not together'.
The public prosecutor's office is long overdue
The Defender of Rights also notes that "there is no evidence to show" that the victim "was responsible for throwing projectiles". The Defender of Rights also recalls his request, made in January 2018, to ban LBDs in the arsenal of maintaining order.
An investigating judge placed the two police officers under the status of assisted witnesses, according to Jean-François Martin. But the Rennes prosecution has still not made its closing statement "16 months after the notification of the end of the investigation," he adds. "This questions the importance that justice places on someone who has lost an eye because of the police," said the young man.
Justice
An investigation into an LBD shot fired at the end of Thursday's demonstration in Paris
Society
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- Rennes
- Eye
- LBD
- Defender of rights
- Jacques toubon
- Labor Law
- Demonstration
- Police violence