the Defender of Rights calls for “disciplinary proceedings” against the police

Defender of Rights Claire Hédon on Tuesday called for “disciplinary proceedings” against the four police officers who arrested Théo Luhaka, seriously injured during a check in Aulnay-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis) in 2017 and become a symbol of police violence.

In a public decision addressed to the Ministry of the Interior, it notes the “breaches” of the four officials in police ethics and asks for disciplinary sanctions, “independently” of the trial at the assizes desired by the Bobigny prosecutor’s office.

It also recommends disciplinary sanctions against the former commissioner of Aulnay and an administrative inspection, facing “the accumulation of breaches” in this case.

“Several gestures were disproportionate”

The facts date back to February 2, 2017. Then aged 21, Théo Luhaka had been arrested in the Rose des vents district in Aulnay-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis). A police officer had struck him with a baton in the rectal area. Four members of the police had been indicted. The prosecution requested that one of them be dismissed. The trial is expected to take place in 2021.

During the arrest, “several gestures were disproportionate”, estimates the Defender of rights, in particular the “pointed blow” of telescopic baton which seriously injured Theo in the anal area – causing incontinence which handicaps him for life, according to an expert medical 2019.

Claire Hédon made this decision after hearing the young man, the four police officers and having access to judicial information.

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