Geneviève Legay, before the police charge, on March 23, 2019 in Nice -

M. Frénois / ANP / 20 Minutes

  • On March 23, 2019, a demonstrator, run over by a police officer, was seriously injured in Nice.

  • According to Mediapart, the IGPN considers that the charge of the police officers launched that day was disproportionate.

The conclusions of the police of the police in the Geneviève Legay affair confirm "the disproportion of the load" of the police, Mediapart title this Monday evening.

According to the pureplayer, the IGPN considers "unsuitable" the orders given on March 23, 2019 in Nice during a demonstration of "yellow vests", during which this 73-year-old activist had fallen heavily, pushed by a police officer.

"The orders given by the divisional commissioner Souchi", in charge of the device that day, are "unsuitable", in particular "during the charge [...] during which Madame Legay was pushed", writes the police. policies in a report submitted in April and cited by Mediapart.

Another strategy "proportional to the situation"

The IGPN also specifies that another strategy then proposed by the gendarmes, also on site on March 23, 2019, "would have been a maneuver of an intensity proportional to the situation".

The military advocated a “pushback wave” in which shields are lowered and force is not used.

In June 2019, Mediapart already mentioned a report from the gendarmerie reported "disproportionate" instructions from the police in the face of a "calm crowd".

Seriously injured, the victim of a hemorrhage and several fractures to the skull, Geneviève Legay was only able to return to her home after two months of hospitalization.

The prosecutor of Nice at the time implicated

In this highly media affair, which has been traced to the highest peak of the State, the public prosecutor of Nice at the time was implicated.

Jean-Michel Prêtre had first affirmed that the septuagenarian had "not been touched by the security forces", before recognizing the opposite a few days later.

The magistrate, since transferred to Lyon, had explained to the

World

 that he "had not wanted to embarrass the Head of State with too important differences between the versions".

President Macron had assured, in 

Nice-Matin

, that "this lady [had] not been in contact with the police".

Jean-Michel Prêtre was also criticized for having entrusted the investigations into the fall of the septuagenarian to the Departmental Security, yet directly involved in the operation of maintaining order during the demonstration in March 2019.

Society

A Nice police officer suspected of having informed Mediapart in the Geneviève Legay affair suspended

Justice

Transferred to Lyon after the Legay affair, the Nice prosecutor settles his accounts at his starting pot

  • Demonstration

  • Yellow vests

  • Police

  • Geneviève Legay case

  • IGPN

  • Nice

  • Justice