His mother Mounia Merzouk calls for “calm and dignity” during the march

NANTERRE – A moment “ calm » et « of contemplation “. A year later, a march in tribute to Nahel is organized this Saturday, June 29 in Nanterre, in Hauts-de-Seine. On June 27, 2023, the death of the 17-year-old, killed by a police officer during a check, had caused several days of riots and become a symbol of the fight against police violence.

The march will start at 2:00 p.m. from the Charles de Gaulle esplanade, a few hundred meters from the Pablo Picasso district, where the teenager lived. The procession will then go along the boulevard de Pesaro before reaching Nelson Mandela Square, where Nahel died.

“A silent walk” for Nahel

“It will be a silent march, where I will give a little speech”Nahel’s mother Mounia Merzouk told RTL on Thursday. She will talk about her son, “how he was” and how he lives “a grieving mother”. And “II will ask that justice does its job”does it also slip into Parisian.

Mounia, organizer of the march, and “Nahel friends” if they wish, will be the only ones to speak during this gathering which takes place in a particular context, on the eve of the first round of the early legislative elections. “I call for calm, dignity and contemplation”she repeats.

Some 500 to 800 people are expected, according to a police source, with no risk of any particular disturbance expected. This demonstration has been declared to the prefecture, according to the Hauts-de-Seine prefecture.

Where is the investigation?

According to elements of the investigation, following a chase, the vehicle driven by Nahel was stopped by traffic. A first police version, according to which the young man drove towards the biker, was quickly refuted by a video of the scene posted on social networks.

We see the two police officers on the side of the vehicle, pointing their guns at the driver. One of them shoots him as the vehicle starts again. The car then crashed into a concrete block, a few dozen meters further on. The police maintained that they were in danger of death because they were trapped between the car and a wall.

Florian M., a 38-year-old police motorcyclist at the time of the events and charged with murder, was placed in pre-trial detention for five months. He was released and placed under judicial supervision in November after several requests from his counsel.

A reconstruction of the facts took place on May 5: in the presence of their lawyers, the police officer responsible for the shooting, his colleague present that day and several witnesses compared their statements, in particular to establish whether Florian M. was in danger of dead.

Nahel’s death led to riots of exceptional scale throughout France. Public buildings attacked, schools and courts burned, stores looted: a Senate report estimated that the damage caused by the riots, shorter but more intense than those of 2005, represents one billion euros.

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