Hedi affair: a new video showing the violence calls into question the defense of the police

The images of the police violence carried out against Hedi by members of the BAC which occurred at Marseille in July has just been broadcast by Médiapart. The video highlights inconsistencies between the police officers' version of the facts and the images from the scene.

These are chilling images, those of police violence targeting young Hedi on the fringes of the nights of riots in July. The video of the scene, which occurred on July 2 at Marseille, is broadcast by Médiapart three months after the events, this Tuesday October 3, 2023. The investigation into this violence which led to The amputation of part of the skull of the 22-year-old young man after an LDB shooting is still in progress, and four police officers from the Marseille BAC have been arrested. indicted for "aggravated voluntary violence". If one of them, the perpetrator of the LDB shooting, was killed, incarcerated for 40 days, he has since been released. released and placed under judicial control like his colleagues.

The video surveillance images which filmed the scene reveals "the extreme violence of the blows and their gratuitousness" and "overwhelm the police officers" according to the investigative newspaper. The video, never broadcast until present, shows the scene from two angles of view: those of the cameras of the rue du Commandant Imhaus and the rue d'Italie to the left. the corner from which the attack took place.

The images contradict the police statements

The scene begins at on a street corner when Hedi and his friend come across a group of BAC police officers dressed in civilian clothes. Very quickly, the two young men fled and the police immobilized Hedi against a wall. It was then that the perpetrator of the LDB shooting, posted on the other side from the sidewalk, shoots Hedi who has his back turned to him. The policeman indicated: having shot while he was at "10-15 meters, maybe 15-20 meters" of the victim to the IGPN investigators, but the distance would have been greater. 5 and 8.15 meters according to Médiapart calculations. The General Directorate of the National Police does not provide details on the distances to the police. respect when firing an LDB and simply prohibit aiming at the head.

Touché at the level of the skull, the young man collapses on the road, while his friend continues to run to escape the scene. One of the police officers takes action; Hedi by the arm again and brings him back to a corner of the sidewalk, in the darkness, that's when several police officers kick him. Hedi. The scene lasts 44 seconds.

The question of self-defense

On the video, Hedi does not appear to have threatening behavior towards the police. Nor does a projectile appear. hand ready to move targeting a member of the police, as indicated by the author of the LDB shooting and his colleagues during their hearings. All of them have also invoked self-defense to justify the shooting and beatings. But the argument does not seem to be able to be used in practice. looking at the images. The videos also show that the four police officers indicted were involved, but two of them deny having witnessed the attack. or participated to violence.

Hedi's lawyer, Jacques-Antoine Preziosi, reacted to the images he had already seen. seen as part of the investigation. "I have said from the beginning that these police officers lied and are still lying, they need to be in the presence of images to confess the truth," he said declared with France 3. The lawyer who refutes the argument of the self-defense of the police officers sticks to his position: "We see here, Hedi is an innocent victim who Summer severe beatings for no reason, against which people were shot LBD for no reason outside the legal framework, it is illegitimate violence.

As for the reaction of the police, also collected by France 3 from Bruno Bartocetti, the national secretary of the Unité SGP-FO Police, it is half-hearted. The police officer continues to consider the possible self-defense of the members of the BAC involved: "An individual can be threatening by turning his back." Concerning the shot at head level, he explains that the head was perhaps not directly aimed, "that in the action, the target is in “movement [and] it's impossible to be that precise.” The man, however, recognizes “shocking” images. on the passage to Hedi's tobacco. Refusing to trust only one video to give an opinion, he calls for it. "look at all the constituent elements of the investigation".