Judged this Friday in Créteil for "contempt" and "rebellion" against a police officer while he was covering a demonstration of undocumented migrants in June 2019 in Alfortville (Val-de-Marne), the journalist Taha Bouhafs revealed the video that he had filmed his arrest and that AFP was able to consult.
This June 11, 2019, in front of the company Chronopost, Taha Bouhafs films with his mobile phone a demonstration of undocumented workers for the online media Over There if I am there.
A lively exchange of a few tens of seconds
This barely three-minute video opens with a handful of demonstrators gathered outside the doors of the company with music and banners in the colors of the various union organizations represented on site. The atmosphere is good. But while the journalist is trying to get closer to the gates, the first incident occurs with a uniformed police officer, who asks Taha Bouhafs not to encroach on his "living space".
Another man in plain clothes appears on the screen, hooded on the head: it is he who accuses Taha Bouhafs of contempt and rebellion and who is accused by the journalist of violence. "Where is your registration number?" "Taha Bouhafs calls out. "- I have no registration number (…). Be careful what you say, ”immediately retorts the policeman.
The lively exchange takes a few tens of seconds. Taha Bouhafs gives his quality of journalist and repeatedly accuses the police officer of "advancing towards (him)", of "touching" him, of "hitting him" or of "hitting him". The policeman contests.
- "You hit (...), do you take yourself for a cowboy?" ! (…) Do you think you are above the law? ! ", Continues the journalist, before continuing:" You play the scum eh ".
- "Is that what you say, that I am a scum?" (…) Be careful what you do, ”warns the policeman again.
- "You punched me," accuses Taha Bouhafs again. - "I rejected you, that's all", replies this plainclothes policeman.
In the wake of this warning, he was arrested by another uniformed police officer.
A criminal trial
Heard on the minutes the same day, the police said, according to elements of which AFP was aware, that Taha Bouhafs said before his arrest: "You're a scum of a cop" and that invited to reiterate the About, the reporter repeated: "You're a cop scum". This precise sentence, which earned him the criminal trial, is not audible in the video filmed by Taha Bouhafs.
The trial is scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m.
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- Policeman
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