“A manhunt”: Julien Muselli, a Corsican nationalist activist, blamed the police on Wednesday for the scuffles with Bastia supporters after a match in Reims in 2016, during which one of them been blinded.

He testified during the trial of a policeman from the Reims BAC which is being held this week in front of the Assizes of the Marne.

The latter is tried for "violence with the use or threat of a weapon followed by mutilation or permanent disability", facts for which he faces 15 years in prison.

A member of the ultra group “Bastia 1905”

On February 13, 2016, after the match won by SC Bastia, this 50-year-old civil servant used his telescopic baton against Maxime Beux, 22 years old at the time of the incident, causing the irreversible functional loss of his eye. left.

For Julien Muselli, 28, who is serving a six-year prison sentence for his participation in the degradation of second homes in Corsica in 2019, it is the police who are at the origin of the scuffles.

This man is considered by the police as one of the leaders of the Bastia supporters that day.

He remembers, on arrival at the stadium, "a few exchanges with the police officers".

But "in the context of a match", without "insults from us".

Unlike the police, he assures us, who made "a few arms of honor, a few obscene gestures".

The one who presents himself as a "Corsican language activist", seller of regional products, was part of the group of ultra supporters "Bastia 1905", now dissolved, like the victim Maxime Beux, with whom he spent the day.



"He said to me: 'I no longer feel my face'"

After the match, in the city center, he says that the Bastia supporters were followed by the police, who took "a malicious pleasure" in insulting them.

"They were in their car, we were in the rain."

He was not there at the time.

But then he saw his friend "disfigured".

"He said to me: 'I can no longer feel my face'" and "spit blood".

The President and the Advocate General question him about the anti-French and anti-police chants heard that evening.

“I don't remember anymore”, he replies, before estimating that “the police are trying to hide behind anti-French insults”.

He jokes about the tags found in the toilets of the stadium (including "We killed your prefect"): "If there are those who decide to make art, it is their responsibility".

A policeman describes the accused as “someone brave”

The police officer in charge of the device of the match then testified at the bar.

He delivered another version, evoking a “rather hostile” group of ultras.

On the route towards the stadium, "we feel a permanent aggressiveness" and arrived at the stadium, "a certain number of individuals begin to insult us, French bastards...".

He claims to have transmitted “the instruction to remain extremely calm and serene”.

Then at the end of the match, to give "the firm order, via the radio, 'except for physical aggression, no one moves'".

The call "if they launch projectiles, it's good!"

heard on the radio when the situation got tense?

He no longer remembers if he said these words, “but I gave the instruction to arrest”.

For him, the accused is “someone calm, professional (…) someone courageous, who never shied away”.

Verdict Friday.

Sport

Demonstration under tension in Bastia after the serious injury of a Corsican supporter in Reims

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