The interior minister admitted Friday that there was still a "questioning on the use of tear gas" during the police intervention on the evening of the Music Festival in Nantes during which Steve Maia Caniço disappeared.
"We must do all the truth, we owe it to parents we owe it to the French"
In its report published Tuesday, the IGPN, the police of the police, nevertheless considered that no "link" could be established between the intervention of the police force on June 21 and the disappearance of the young man of 24 years , found dead Monday in the Loire, raising criticism and questions. "What I know to have read as you report is that there is a questioning on the use of tear (...) on the opportunity to have triggered the use of tear (.. The question is asked, this is also what we have to answer, "said Christophe Castaner, on the sidelines of a trip to Orly airport.
On the night of June 21 to 22, at 4 o'clock in the morning, some 20 policemen had gone to the Wilson wharf in Nantes to enforce the time limit for music broadcast. Scuffles erupted, concert participants said they were blinded by a cloud of tear gas and some fell in the river. "I was able to see how the end-of-concert moments were not only difficult for the security forces (...) What I know is that now we have to do the whole truth, we we owe it to the French, it's a serious event, a man is dead, "added the minister.
A tribute to Nantes authorized, but "framed to avoid overflows"
As early as June 26, Christophe Castaner did not rule out that the young man's disappearance was linked to the police operation. "A young man has disappeared and perhaps it is linked to an operation, a police intervention," the minister told the National Assembly, two days after seizing the IGPN. Several calls were broadcast on social networks to pay tribute to Steve Saturday in Nantes even if the prefect of Loire-Atlantique, Claude d'Harcourt, banned any event in the city center.
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"I fully understand the desire for a tribute but I do not know any tribute that is done in violence," said the minister. "There is no ban on demonstrations (...), obviously tomorrow there is the possibility of organizing a rally (...) but this is framed to prevent overflowing and violence", a- he added.