Threats against demonstrators: police officers implicated in audio recording identified

Europe 1 with AFP 14:35 pm, March 27, 2023

The police officers who threatened and intimidated young protesters last week in Paris during a wild demonstration against the pension reform have been formally identified, we learned Monday from sources close to the case. "These are members of the 21st intervention company in formation BRAV-M", the units of police on motorcycles responsible for maintaining order at the heart of controversies over the violent repression of the demonstrations, according to one of the sources. "They have not been suspended until then," said another source close to the case.

LISTEN - What is BRAV-M?

Not planned in a BRAV-M for Tuesday's mobilization

Will they be engaged on Tuesday for the 10th national day of mobilization against the pension reform? "They were not planned in a BRAV-M," one of the sources commented. "Obviously, there will be sanctions," Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Saturday.

READ ALSO – What is the Brav-M, this police unit pointed out during the demonstrations?

On Friday, the prefect of police of Paris announced that he had seized the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) after the broadcast of an audio recording, obtained by the newspaper Le Monde and the online media Loopsider, in which we hear police officers, presented as members of the BRAV-M (Brigade for the repression of violent actions motorized), made insulting and humiliating remarks towards seven young demonstrators they had just arrested.

"You're going to ride in another thing called an ambulance"

"The next time we come, you will not get on the bus to go to the police station, you will get on another thing called ambulance to go to the hospital," threatens one of the officials. Two noises, which can be those of slaps, are also audible.

The prosecutor's office, for its part, opened a judicial investigation on Saturday after a report received in the afternoon. A 23-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman, members of the group of arrestees, filed complaints on Monday.

READ ALSO – The dissolution of the BRAV-M is "not on the agenda", according to the prefect of police

The complaint of the first, a Chadian student named Souleyman, targets in particular facts of "sexual assault committed by a person holding public authority in assembly". He reports that a policeman "grabbed him by sex" and insulted him by telling him "you don't even have balls". Demanded by several deputies of the France insoumise (LFI), the dismantling of the BRAV-M is "not on the agenda", said Saturday the prefect of police