New medical expertise carried out at the request of the family of Adama Traoré, a 24-year-old black man who died in 2016 during an arrest, attributes his death to a technique of arrest used by the gendarmes, learned on Tuesday AFP from a source close to the file, confirming information from the Parisian. This case, erected as a symbol of police violence, has become a battle between the legal experts who dismiss the responsibility of the gendarmes and those chosen by the family who sweep their conclusions.
On July 19, 2016, Adama Traoré died in the Persan barracks, almost two hours after his arrest in his city of Beaumont-sur-Oise (Val-d'Oise) after a chase and after having escaped to a first arrest on a hot day.
"A positional asphyxia induced by the ventral plating"
The latest expert report, released Friday, dismissed the responsibility of the police by attributing the death to a "cardiogenic edema" linked to the state of health of Adama Traoré. The three doctors believed that "the association of pulmonary sarcoidosis [a rare pathology], a hypertrophic heart disease and a sickle cell trait [a genetic disease]" had "probably been able to (...) cardiogenic edema) against a background of intense stress and physical exertion, under a high concentration of tetrahydrocannabinol ”, the active ingredient in cannabis.
In the new report, the second to be carried out at the request of the young man's family, a doctor, who worked on the basis of other expert reports and medical documents according to the family's lawyer, considers for his part that Adama Traoré died of an asphyxial syndrome following a cardiogenic edema. He attributes the latter "to a positional asphyxia induced by the ventral plating", returning to point the technique of arresting the gendarmes, according to this document whose AFP was able to consult the conclusions dated June 2. "No other cause of death has been identified," he adds.
"The weight of our three bodies"
The last forensic examination had been ordered last year by the investigating judges responsible for this sensitive case, after a first medical report ordered by the family had swept away the conclusions of the investigation. Adama Traoré "took the weight of the three of us" when he was arrested in the house where he was hiding, said one of the gendarmes during an interrogation, raising questions about the method used.
“Unlike the experts appointed by the judges, the independent doctors who carried out the counter-expert opinions are all specialists in the diseases mentioned in the dossier. Given their skills, their conclusions are essential in the face of those who exclude the ventral plating as the cause of the death of Adama Traoré, ”reacted to AFP Me Yassine Bouzrou, the lawyer for the Traoré family.
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