Fifteen months in prison for a police officer for violence in Strasbourg

A police patrol.

(Illustration) -

A 46-year-old police officer was sentenced on Friday in Strasbourg to two years in prison, including fifteen months with a warrant of committal and ban on practice, for violence committed on a young man of 18.

"The sentence is two years in prison, fifteen months of which is closed, with prohibition to exercise", according to an officer of the departmental public security direction (DDSP) of Bas-Rhin, confirming information from the

(

).

The agent was prosecuted for "violence by a person holding public authority".

The facts took place on the night of March 18 to 19, during the first confinement.

The police officer was called in to arrest a young man who had just bought cannabis resin.

While the fugitive was overpowered on the ground by another officer, the officer kicked him several times in the face.

The scene was filmed by a local resident.

Large fracture of the nose with severe edema

The young man had suffered further blows at the police station: first on the ribs, then, once on the ground, in the face.

He was then taken to the Strasbourg University Hospital where he had an MRI scan which revealed a large fracture of the nose with significant edema.

Five days later, by the time his face could loosen, he had been operated on.

The prosecutor, quoted by the daily, blamed acts of a rare "brutality", "without any restraint", which are those of a "thug".

The defendant, a former soldier decorated after missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo, conceded having "fucked up".

According to

, he had not been sanctioned in his service.

"As long as you have a judicial inquiry, you cannot prejudge what the justice will decide, and you cannot sanction the person," said the DDSP officer.

"It is a current violence, it seems exceptional, like the sentence that was inflicted, but it is regular, it happens in police vehicles, in police stations", declared the victim's lawyer, Maître Renaud Bettcher.

He said his client, who was not known to the police or justice, was also sentenced to three months in prison following the purchase of cannabis.

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• Police violence

• Trial

• Strasbourg