The Minnesota Attorney General has decided to toughen the charges against the alleged police officer responsible for the asphyxiated death of George Floyd in the United States by charging him with second degree murder, the equivalent of one intentional homicide without premeditation, announced Wednesday, June 3, the Democratic senator of Minnesota Amy Klobuchar. 

Three other police officers will also be prosecuted for complicity, added the senator. 

Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white policeman who held his knee to the neck of George Floyd - a 46-year-old black man - was sacked from police, arrested and charged with third degree murder last Friday, who corresponds to manslaughter under French law.

The three other police officers involved in Floyd's arrest have not been charged so far. 

Second degree murder is punishable by forty years in prison, while third degree murder is punishable by twenty-five years in prison. 

The death of George Floyd on May 25 launched a huge wave of protests in the United States. More than a hundred American cities are affected by the demonstrations of anger in the fifty states, with thousands of arrests and several deaths. 

With Reuters

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