• Alexandre Benalla, 30, has been on trial since Monday for having assaulted and arrested demonstrators on May 1, 2018, while following the police as an observer.

  • He is also accused of illegally possessing a firearm which he exhibited in a photo revealed in the press, and of having continued to travel with diplomatic passports several months after his dismissal.

    He faces up to seven years in prison and a 100,000 euros fine.

  • The court heard from a man and a woman who suspect Benalla and Crase of having violated them in the garden of plants before being taken into custody.

At the Paris judicial court,

A few minutes after having challenged Khélifa M., Alexandre Benalla and Vincent Crase crossed paths with Simon D. and Mélisande C., one of her friends. This May 1, 2018, the two young people went to demonstrate when there was a crowd movement. They took refuge in the Jardin des Plantes and were looking for an exit when they came across three men. "I was convinced that they were police officers," explains Simon D. on Thursday at the bar. One of them, Vincent Crase, who wears an orange armband, orders them to go to an exit. Suddenly, Mélisande, who is holding her phone in hand, hears "she is filming!" »And finds himself thrown against a tree.

Simon D. is tackled to the ground by a man who arrives from behind.

“The scene really takes place in two seconds,” he continues.

I find myself on my back and someone arrives with a telescopic baton.

It is now certain that two of the four defendants tried in Paris for more than a week are involved, namely Vincent Crase and Alexandre Benalla.

Crase affirms that the young man is "wrong", that it is not he who exhibited a baton in front of him.

“Mine was in my pocket.

"

"007"

But Simon D. is categorical. He had a "flash" by reviewing the videos of the scene relayed by the press a few weeks later. While he is lying on the ground, his friend is a few meters from him, "hands in the air against the tree", tells the young woman still moved. A man takes her identity and laughs at her. "When I said that we obviously no longer had the right to demonstrate on May 1, he told me that I had only to go to Venezuela." Right after, someone she thinks is Vincent Crase - she doesn't recognize him formally - asks for her cell phone and erases the video she filmed earlier. She asks him for his number. "Very proud of his joke", he replies: "007".

"If someone that day had no interest in being filmed, it could have been you or Mr. Benalla," said Judge Brunaud.

No, answers Crase.

“At that point, I didn't feel like I had done something I shouldn't have done, I just showed her the way.

Alexandre Benalla does not say anything else.

“No one knew me before May 1st.

I am not a public figure.

At that time, I did not intervene.

However, two police officers said during the investigation that it was he who had pushed Simon D. to the ground.

“I was not near and in contact” with Simon D. and Mélisande C., insists Benalla.

A "trying" custody

Shocked, Mélisande C. asks these people to show her a police card. One of the three men, of "Mediterranean" origin, takes out a card with a tricolor flag which he puts almost immediately in his pocket. Even though her memories are fuzzy, she is sure of one thing. “I don't remember seeing the police written on it. Simon D. and Mélisande C. were taken into police custody before being released a few hours later. "This custody was very trying", relates Simon D. The young man did not file a complaint immediately because he wanted to "turn the page" of this case, and his lawyer had warned him that it would be very long.

Simon D. and Mélisande C. decided to do it when the affair broke.

The young man wanted "explanations", to understand why he had been deprived of his liberty by people "who are not even police".

The trial of Alexandre Benalla is to last until October 1.

He faces up to seven years in prison and a 100,000 euros fine.

Follow the trial live on the twitter account of our journalist @TiboChevillard

Justice

Benalla case: The former Elysee mission manager confronted with his lies by the judge

Justice

Benalla affair: "I absolutely do not regret what I did", proclaims the former Elysee mission manager

  • Paris

  • Justice

  • Police

  • Violence

  • Alexandre benalla

  • Trial