Paris (AFP)

Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet defended herself Monday from wanting to intervene in an individual case after Emmanuel Macron asked him to look into the case of Adama Traoré, who died in 2016 during an arrest, said his entourage.

"It is not up to the Minister of Justice to intervene in an individual case," assured the entourage of the minister to AFP. "There is no question of intervening in an individual procedure", was hammered from the same source.

"But Nicole Belloubet is responsible for the public service of justice. As such, she is always available to answer questions about the proper functioning of justice," added this source, referring in particular to respect for adversarial proceedings, deadlines for instruction, the presumption of innocence.

The Elysee Palace said on Monday that Emmanuel Macron had asked the government to "speed up" in its proposals to improve the ethics of the police, in the face of the multiplication of demonstrations against racism and police violence.

The President of the Republic asked the Keeper of the Seals to look into the case of the death in 2016 of Adama Traoré, a young 24-year-old black man, during an arrest.

Invited Friday on BFMTV / RMC to react on the developments of the Traoré affair, Nicole Belloubet replied: "On the legal aspect of the affair, if there is someone who cannot speak it is good me".

"I ask you to respect the separation of powers. The law prohibits the Keeper of the Seals from intervening in individual cases," the Traore family lawyer Yassine Bouzrou reacted on Twitter on Monday.

"How to respond to a systemic dysfunction (the judicial treatment of violence committed by the police) by an institutional dysfunction (intervention by the Minister in an individual case) while only dealing with a particular case", was outraged the Magistrates' Union (SM, left).

The Union of Magistrates' Union (USM, majority) deplored that the President of the Republic "once again forgets the principle of separation of powers" and "repeats by requesting direct intervention by the Minister of Justice".

"As it had already been able to do in the Halimi case, for example, it leaves its institutional role which is to guarantee the independence of Justice and not to meddle in the treatment of a particular file", regrets the USM in a press release.

The suspect in the 2017 murder of Jewish sexagenarian Sarah Halimi was declared criminally irresponsible in late 2019, a decision that angered civil parties and representatives of the Jewish community.

Emmanuel Macron had intervened in the debate from Jerusalem in January 2020, saying in particular that "the need for a trial" was "there". His statements had resulted in a severe development of the highest magistrates of France, who had reminded him "the independence of justice".

The USM insists that this independence "prohibits external pressures on the magistrates who must be able to take their decisions calmly". And concludes that "the request of the President of the Republic that Madame Belloubet, Keeper of the Seals, look into the Traoré file is therefore unacceptable".

© 2020 AFP