In Polynesia, the four police officers filmed hitting a disabled person indicted

Four police officers accused of violence committed against a person with a disability, filmed and broadcast on social networks, have been indicted, announced Monday September 30 in the evening (Tuesday 1^is October morning in Paris) in Papeete the public prosecutor Solène Belaouar.

The two peace guards and the two deputy police officers were indicted for “aggravated intentional violence committed by persons holding public authority, in a meeting and against a vulnerable person, as well as forgery”said the prosecutor. They were placed “under strict judicial supervision, including in particular the ban on exercising the profession of police officer”she added.

Friday evening, the four police officers intervened in a sensitive area of ​​Papeete where a man in a wheelchair was asleep in the street. In the video filmed at night, from the balcony of a building, the four police officers surround the man before one of the officers lifts the chair and knocks him to the ground. The man manages to sit on the ground, but the same police officer delivers a powerful blow to his face and the man falls again.

A handrail “not consistent with reality”

The video, lasting 49 seconds, is not contextualized. At no time does the disabled person show any signs of aggression. According to the summary of the facts written Friday evening by these police officers, which Agence France-Presse obtained, they affirm that the man in the wheelchair was already injured in the head when they arrived. The police describe him as “very excited, flirting with outrage and uncooperative” and specify that it would be “fell out of his chair alone”.

They subsequently, after the video was broadcast, recognized that this handrail “did not conform to reality”. While in police custody, the 27-year-old assistant police officer responsible for the violence indicated “having caused the man to fall involuntarily and then having struck him out of anger, claiming in particular that the victim was drunk and kept insulting them”according to the prosecution. The victim is a 48-year-old man. He presents “superficial traumatic lesions on the face, right arm, left elbow and both knees”.