French officer to go on trial over 2023 death of teen that sparked riots

RTÉ News​

2 days ago

A French policeman who shot and killed a teenager at point-blank range in June 2023, sparking days of riots, is to go on trial for murder, a court and prosecutors have said.
The officer is accused of murdering 17-year-old Nahel M in the Nanterre suburb of Paris.
The trial could take place in the second or third quarter of 2026, the court and prosecutor said in a joint statement.
The officer, identified as Florian M, was released from custody in November 2023 after five months in detention.
Mobile phone footage of him shooting the teenager inside a car during a traffic control on a busy street went viral.
The anger sparked protests that degenerated into rioting and led to scenes of devastation across France.
Police initially maintained that Nahel had driven his car at the policeman, but this was contradicted by the video, which showed two officers standing outside a stationary car, with one pointing a weapon at its driver.
"This order for a trial is both disappointing and not surprising," said Laurent-Franck Lienard, the officer's lawyer.
"The investigating judge would have had to be courageous to take a different position than that of the prosecution" which pushed for the trial, he said, adding that he would lodge an appeal against the order.
"We maintain that the shooting was legitimate," Mr Lienard added.
Frank Berton, the lawyer for Nahel's mother, expressed his "satisfaction" over the move.
"We are just seeing the law being applied ... Now all that remains is to convince the court," he said.
The move to try the officer over the death of Nahel, who was of north African origin, comes against the background of new tensions in France over racism and security.
A man who had posted racist videos shot dead his Tunisian neighbour and badly wounded a Turkish man in the south of France at the weekend, and a Malian man was stabbed to death in a mosque in April.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, who is taking an increasingly hard line on immigration issues, has faced accusations of not adopting a strong enough stance against such crimes and even fuelling a racist climate.
But he said that "every racist act is an anti-French act".