The Court of Cassation decided on Wednesday to disorient Lyons investigation of the violence suffered by Geneviève Legay, a 73-year-old protester injured in March during a police charge against a banned gathering of "yellow vests" in Nice, France. we learned from a judicial source. This investigation, which has earned the Nice prosecutor many critics, will now be conducted by a magistrate Lyon.
"Attac France is delighted with this decision, which should finally be able to guarantee a serene work of justice, on this serious matter, which concerns not only the actions of a single policeman, but also those of a whole chain of command", reacted Attac, association where Geneviève Legay militant, in a statement.
Some police officers of the operation were in regular relations with the magistrates of Nice
The Advocate General had decided in favor of the change of scene of the investigation. "The prosecutor of the Republic (Nice) had first entrusted the investigation to the departmental security while the head of this service had itself participated in the operation of policing in the area where Geneviève Legay was jostled and was the companion of the commissioner in charge of the command of this operation, "he recalled. The magistrate took again the elements advanced by the public prosecutor of Aix-en-Provence which had transmitted the request for expatriation of the lawyers of the activist and Attac. The Advocate General also pointed out that some police officers who took part in the operation on 23 March were in regular contact with the magistrates of Nice.
Deeply criticized for his management of the case, including the seizure of departmental security, the Nice prosecutor Jean-Michel Priest had been summoned by his superiors to explain.
Some fifty people braved the ban on demonstrations
On March 23 in Nice, while the mayor and the prefecture feared excesses on the eve of the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping, a large perimeter had been banned "yellow vests". Geneviève Legay was among the fifty or so protesters who came in the morning to brave this prohibition to demonstrate Place Garibaldi.
According to the testimony of a police officer, corroborated by a note from the gendarmerie management revealed by Mediapart, the gendarmes refused to charge, unlike the police: "Orders received disproportionate to the threat (quiet crowd)", says this note. The investigation opened for violence targets a police officer accused of causing Geneviève Legay a head trauma by causing his fall.