Assa Traoré, sister of Adama, during a demonstration in Paris in June 2020 (illustration) -

RAPHAEL BLOCH / SIPA

Assa Traoré, who has become an emblem of the fight against police violence since the death of her brother Adama, has been sentenced in civil proceedings by the Paris Court of Appeal for infringing the presumption of innocence.

The three gendarmes responsible for the arrest of Adama Traoré on July 19, 2016 had assigned Assa Traoré in December 2019 in summary for five messages published between September and November 2019 on the Facebook page of the committee "The truth for Adama" which presented them as causing the death.

This 24-year-old black man died in the Persan barracks nearly two hours after his arrest in his town of Beaumont-sur-Oise (Val-d'Oise), after a chase on a hot day. .

Parisian investigating judges are investigating this death, the causes of which are the subject of a battle between experts.

According to the most recent, signed on January 13, the young man died of "heat stroke", which "probably" would not have been fatal without the arrest of the gendarmes.

Assa Traoré "violated the presumption of innocence" of the gendarmes

Unsuccessful at first instance in July 2020 and ordered to pay legal costs, the gendarmes had appealed.

In a decision dated last Friday, the Paris Court of Appeal firstly recalls that the law "does not prohibit reporting on court cases in progress and even granting particular credit to the thesis of the accusation, but only if, from all the comments, a clear affirmation of guilt does not emerge, ”said the court.

In this case, the court considers that Assa Traoré "violated the presumption of innocence" of the gendarmes and orders the deletion of two of the five messages from the Facebook page, the publication of a court press release evoking this conviction under penalty of fine and the payment of 4,000 euros in legal costs to the gendarmes.

However, it dismisses the gendarmes who had each requested 15,000 euros in damages.

Sentenced for two of the five messages

The Court of Appeal considers that the five messages have affected "obvious" the presumption of innocence of the gendarmes but condemns Assa Traoré only for two of them, considering "not established" that it is there. author or responsible for the other three.

"It is a victory because all the passages pursued are considered to violate the presumption of innocence", welcomed Me Rodolphe Bosselut, lawyer for the gendarmes.

Me Yassine Bouzrou, lawyer for Assa Traoré, declined to comment.

Society

Adama Traoré case: His death would be linked to "heat stroke" aggravated by his arrest, concludes a new report

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