After new testimonies and medical evidence collected by the investigators, the investigating judges in charge of the Adama Traoré case ordered additional medical expertise, almost 5 years after the young man's death following his arrest. by the gendarmes. 

The investigating judges in charge of the Adama Traoré case, who died in 2016 after his arrest by the gendarmes, ordered additional medical expertise, the investigators having collected new testimonies and medical elements, learned on Saturday. AFP from a source close to the case.

This supplement was requested on June 30 from the four Belgian doctors who had submitted a new report in January, supposed to settle the battle of contradictory expertises at the heart of this file erected as a symbol of the denunciation of police violence.

Belgian experts had concluded that the death of this young black man on July 19, 2016 in the Persan barracks (Val-d'Oise), had been caused, on this hot day, by a "heat stroke" which 'would however "probably" not have been fatal without his arrest under the weight of the three gendarmes.

"I'm not used to seeing him out of breath"

Since then, investigators have finally been able to interview a direct witness in March, the man who had helped Adama Traoré to escape after a first arrest.

"Adama was out of breath (...) I am not used to seeing him out of breath, but it is true that when I intervened, I was a little surprised to see him tired", declared this man, who had known him since childhood.

"It's as if his body was not reacting. (…) For me, he was in an unusual state, he was not speaking," said this witness.

This man added that Adama Traoré had left "walking", which was confirmed by an employee of the town hall who witnessed the scene.

The gendarme, who had sprained his ankle in the fight with the two men, had not pursued him.

Confidential medical information

The investigators also seized Adama Traoré's medical file in occupational medicine, produced when he was hired by an integration association in 2014. Placed under seal and sent to the experts, it has not at this stage been communicated to lawyers, due to medical confidentiality. A work stoppage was also found for the period from June 2 to 18, 2014, without the reason being mentioned in the file.

A former Pôle Emploi advisor also reported to investigators that she had been informed of Adama Traoré's shortness of breath problems which would have justified a change of assignment. But among the fifteen former officials or former workers of the association interviewed, none has confirmed this element. The experts must say by August 31 if these new elements have "vocation to modify" their initial conclusions, which also evoked the role played, "to a lesser extent", by a genetic disease and a rare pathology from which Adama suffered. Traore.