Clashes broke out Saturday, November 28 in Paris on the sidelines of the demonstration against the law on comprehensive security.

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Olivier Coret / SIPA

  • Hakram B., 32, appeared on Monday before the 10th chamber of the Paris judicial tribunal for having hit police officers during a demonstration against the proposed “global security” law in Paris on November 28.

  • The defendant, who recognizes the facts, explained that on that day he “lost [s] one calms down” and “let himself be won over by anger”.

  • The prosecution requested against him three years in prison, two of which were suspended.

    The decision will be made on February 10.

At the Paris court,

For several weeks, the territorial security investigators tried to identify the one they called "X5".

This man, dressed in blue jeans and a jacket, was one of six who had been spotted, Place de la Bastille, on November 28, lashing out on police at the end of the demonstration against the proposal of “global security” law.

By exploiting the videos filmed that day by journalists covering her, they managed to put a name on her face and locate it.

On December 17, Hakram B., 32, was arrested in Cachan (Val-de-Marne) in a former gendarmerie barracks squatted by the Extinction Rebellion movement and placed in police custody.

This Monday, before the 10th chamber of the Paris court, the defendant was determined to explain himself.

"I recognize a participation in the majority of the facts which are reproached to me", he assures from the outset to the president Edmond Brunaud.

Apart from a conviction in 2008, the young man is little known to the police.

How then to explain this excess of violence?

“I lost my temper, I let myself be overcome by anger,” he says calmly.

On the videos broadcast at the hearing, we see him first kicking a police officer to bring him to the ground and then later punching other officials on the Place de la Bastille.

His lawyer, Me Juan Branco, emphasizes that it is his client that we hear shouting to other demonstrators: "Leave him, wesh".

"The blows were multiple and came from everywhere"

Théo D., one of the four police officers present at the hearing, fell to the ground and was kicked and punched by several people, before being picked up by one of his colleagues.

That day, in a cloud of smoke, he saw himself die.

"The blows were multiple and came from everywhere," recalls at the helm this ice armor which had several teeth broken, which will earn him an ITT (total incapacity for work) of eight days.

“From a personal point of view, I'm ashamed of what I did,” continues the defendant.

It's not my habit to hit someone on the ground, I don't realize all of that right now.

"

The president seems to have a hard time believing him to be sincere.

"I am very frank of the collar, this kind of file I know them well, I have judged many", entrusts the magistrate, stressing that was found in the computer of Hakram a document which he has already seen in other cases.

It is, he said, a "police assault guide."

According to the defendant, it is about a "photo which turned on the social networks", which he kept on his phone for a long time because he had forgotten its existence.

The violence he committed that Saturday was not "premeditated", he defends himself.

“I'm not going to protest for that.

"President Brunaud nevertheless pointed out to him that he had written in a message that it was" one of the most beautiful days of my life "...

ACAB as phone code

The magistrate also noted that Hakram's phone code was 1312, ie ACAB for “All cops are bastards” (in French, “all the cops are bastards”).

"It's completely stereotypical as a name", recognizes the defendant who says "too intelligent to put all the police in the same bag".

"Police violence is a subject that has always been close to my heart because I myself have suffered and I have seen it in demonstrations", he says.

Before adding that "all police officers are not violent" and that "some do their job very well".

Moreover, he went to support Alexandre Langlois, who was general secretary of the police union Vigi, when the latter was summoned to the IGPN, the police force.

The lawyer for the civil parties, Me Jérôme Andrei, believes that Hakram "embodies this hatred against primary cops and this culture of ultraviolence".

He is “the typical profile of the black bloc” who will “wait for every opportunity during the demonstration to strike as much as possible”.

"He was only there for that," insists the black dress.

The prosecutor for her part denounced a "regular attack" on the police.

Against this young man "intelligent, who argues, who is posed", she requires three years in prison, two of which are suspended, the obligation to compensate the victims and the prohibition to hold a weapon for five years.

"Do not try to make an example"

Hakram's lawyer, Me Branco, denounced "a deeply political hearing" by insisting on the outrage aroused by this case.

He pleaded for the court's leniency and stressed "the importance of not seeking to set an example."

"The prejudice of the parties cannot be attributed" to his client alone, he continues, asking the court to pronounce a sentence which "will allow him to rebuild himself and move forward in life".

The decision was reserved for February 10.

In the meantime, the young man from Seine-Saint-Denis was remanded in custody at the end of the hearing.

Justice

"Global security" law: The Paris prosecutor's office opens an investigation after the attack on a police officer at the end of the demonstration

Society

"Freedom" marches: 62 police officers and gendarmes injured, 81 arrests, according to the Ministry of the Interior

  • Black Blocks

  • Demonstration

  • Police

  • Paris

  • Justice

  • Police violence

  • Court

  • Trial