Two judicial investigations were opened following the controversial police intervention in Nantes during the Fête de la musique, the public prosecutor said Tuesday, almost a month after the disappearance of a young man during this evening. "I received ten complaints from police officers who were injured during the events of the Music Festival and who have lodged a complaint for violence against a person in the custody of the public authority," said Pierre Sennès, the public prosecutor. In Nantes. "These complaints were sent for investigation to the judicial police," he added.
A disproportionate intervention?
On the night of 21 to 22 June around 4:30, clashes broke out between participants and police, came demanding the stop of the music on the island of Nantes, near a quay without parapet along the Loire. About twenty police had been thrown projectiles, according to the deputy head of the departmental direction of public security, who had authority on the police that night. In the opinion of Thierry Palermo, it was a "response that falls within the framework of the law", while five officials had been wounded, one of them "beaten on the ground".
On the contrary, many participants denounced a disproportionate intervention, claiming to have been blinded by a cloud of tear gas and panicked in the river from the top of the wharf. Fourteen people had been rescued in the Loire by the help of the night.
No news from Steve Maia Caniço
A collective complaint from 85 participants was filed on 3 July at the prosecutor's office "for endangering the lives of others and voluntary violence by persons holding public authority". "I seized the IGPN (the General Inspectorate of the National Police, ed) to proceed with the investigation following the collective complaint," said Sennès, adding that it was a referral "in a judicial framework".
Since that night, Steve Maia Caniço, 24-year-old extracurricular animator who participated in the party, has not given any sign of life. His disappearance is the subject of a judicial investigation entrusted to a magistrate and research in the Loire continues. In this case, where the procedures are multiplying, two other investigations are in progress: one, this time administrative, of the IGPN, the other of the Defender of Rights, to clarify the circumstances of this controversial intervention.