Expertise follows one another… and is not alike. Four years after the death of Adama Traoré, this affair, erected as a symbol of police violence, has become a battle between the legal experts who dismiss the responsibility of the gendarmes and the doctors chosen by the family who sweep their conclusions.
The last (against) expertise to date was made at the request of the family. And this document, unlike the previous one, calls into question the gendarmes. His conclusions are categorical and without nuance: for the professor of medicine who signs it, Adama Traoré died because of the ventral plating, implied by the gendarmes who arrested him. "No other cause of death has been identified," wrote the doctor.
>> READ ALSO - Rally for Adama Traoré: has there been a "flaw" in the face of tensions?
On July 19, 2016, Adama Traoré died in the Persan barracks, almost two hours after his arrest in his town of Beaumont-sur-Oise, in Val-d'Oise, after a chase and after having escaped a first arrest on a hot day. Neither witnesses nor videos gave an account of the scene, only known by the testimony of the three gendarmes and the doctors' conclusions.
Two autopsies and four expert reports since the death of Adama Traoré
It is the second time that the family of Adama Traoré has carried out a second opinion, which each time goes in the same direction: that defended by his relatives, against other expert opinions. What must be understood is that for four years, in this case, there have been two autopsies (in 2016) and four reports by experts appointed by the justice system. Eleven different doctors, forensic scientists and specialists worked on the subject.
None of them has ever clearly established that Adama Traore was certainly dead crushed under the weight of the gendarmes, as his family is convinced. The only point on which all the doctors agree, including those designated by his relatives, is that the young man died of asphyxiation. But what is it due to? According to the dozen experts, it would be due to multiple medical reasons, while the doctor mandated by the family sweeps away the hypotheses of all his colleagues.