the essential
A well-known football instructor in Toulouse and committed to the fight against delinquency, Rachid Temmar was placed in police custody in a case which was ultimately dismissed.
“I lived for 24 hours in another world!” A popular educator in the Toulouse cities where he crisscrosses all the football fields to get many young people out of delinquency, Rachid Temmar found himself in the shoes of a pariah, during a long period of police custody. Accused of threatening with a weapon against one of his brothers, this social worker and sandwich seller finally emerged free from a police station in western Toulouse, this Thursday, November 14, after 24 hours of interrogations that he will never forget.
“Like a criminal”
“Everything changed, two days earlier, Wednesday November 13, on a football field, not far from the Zénith, while I was at a football training session with the young people, says the educator and president of the Cap Jeunes association I receive a phone call from the police around 6 p.m. and I am told that I absolutely have to go to the Mirail police station. I suggest going there the next day, at 8. hours, because the matter seemed very urgent, while being very surprised I hung up and a few minutes later, the Bac arrived and handcuffed me.
Arrested in front of his players, Rachid Temmar was taken manu militari to the Mirail police station, ignoring what he was accused of. From Bellefontaine, he was then taken to Colomiers, then Tournefeuille, where a judicial police officer told him, at the end of the night, the reasons for his placement in police custody.
“I was amazed!”, continues the Toulouse man. “I was told that one of my brothers accused me of having threatened to kill him with a gun…!”
Serious accusations that do not fit the character. Verifications are carried out during the hearings. Rachid Temmar's apartment is searched. His front door was shattered by the battering ram and his home was searched.
End of the nightmare on Thursday, when the prosecution decided to dismiss this case, “for insufficiently characterized offense”. “I don't wish anyone to experience police custody. Everyone looks at you like a criminal when I have nothing to reproach myself for.”
For the moment, the elements collected by the investigators plead in favor of the Toulouse educator in whose home no firearm was found. Analysis of the telephone calls suggest that he could not have been in front of one of his brothers this Tuesday to threaten him. “During the investigations there was more exculpatory evidence than inculpatory evidence,” confirms his lawyer, M.e Younés Derkaoui who said he was surprised by the turn of this affair. It seems that it finds its origins in a family bickering against a backdrop of land inheritance, between France and Algeria.
An investigation for the offense of slanderous denunciation could be initiated by the prosecution. “I hope not to relive this hell again,” breathes, relieved, Rachid Temmar. It remains to be seen who will take care of repairing their front door.
