Death of Adama Traoré: a second opinion questions the plating of the gendarmes

What caused the death ofAdama Traore, 24 years old, on July 19, 2016, in the Persan barracks, almost two hours after his arrest in his city of Beaumont-sur-Oise (Val d’Oise) ? Is it the way he was arrested and pinned to the ground, causing asphyxiation? Or could his death have been caused by a medical history or a rare disease?

Last week, forensic expertise, ordered by the examining magistrates, dismissed the responsibility of the gendarmes who had arrested him. Adama Traoré did not die from positional asphyxia, but from cardiogenic edema , concluded the three doctors, believing that the edema could have been caused by the association of pulmonary sarcoidosis (rare pathology, N.D.L.R.), hypertrophic heart disease and sickle cell trait (a genetic disease, N.D.L.R.) .

This is the third expertise which reinforces the absence of any responsibility of the gendarmes , assured Me Rodolphe Bosselut, lawyer of the gendarmes.

“Sufficient charges for a trial”

However, this Tuesday, June 2, the family of Adama Traore revealed the results of a second opinion carried out at their request by a Parisian professor of medicine.

His conclusions are categorical and contrary to those made last week: The death follows an asphyxial syndrome. Asphyxia syndrome follows cardiogenic edema who follows positional asphyxia induced by ventral plating , concludes this expert.

Me Yassine Bouzrou, the Traore family’s lawyer, indicated that he had just added this expertise to the file: It has the same legal value as that ordered by the judges. It demonstrates, in any case, that there are sufficient charges for a trial to take place and that there is a contradictory debate on these different expert opinions , he insists.

The victim’s family has also long called for a reconstruction of the arrest. In vain so far. It is important because it would allow to know how long to last the tackle on the ground. Now, it probably lasted a long time , continues Me Bouzrou.

Adama Traore took the weight of all three of our bodies during his arrest in the house where he was hiding, said one of the gendarmes during an interrogation, raising questions about the method used.

The three gendarmes who carried out the arrest were placed under the intermediate status of assisted witness and, since then, the defense and the family have fought a legal as well as a medical battle.

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