Investigation opened after cyberbullying of widow

The widow of Eric Comyn, a police officer killed by a repeat offender in Mougins (Alpes-Maritimes) during a road check, is the target of insulting comments on social networks that have triggered the opening of an investigation, AFP learned on Tuesday from a source close to the investigation. Contacted by AFP, the Draguignan prosecutor’s office, in charge of the case, had not responded by late afternoon.

“The ongoing proceedings concern various despicable messages on social networks targeting the widow but also the police and their relatives”said the source without giving further details. “I say it loud and clear, France killed my husband. (…) France killed my husband through its inadequacy, its laxity and its excess of tolerance.”had denounced Harmonie Comyn, the gendarme’s widow, on August 28, during a ceremony in Mandelieu-La Napoule, two days after the events. “Be careful, I’m not talking about foreigners, but about repeat offenders”she said, the suspect arrested being of Cape Verdean nationality.

10 convictions on his record

The 39-year-old man who mowed down Warrant Officer Comyn while trying to avoid a traffic stop in Mougins already had 10 convictions on his record and had been arrested twice for driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs, according to the courts. He was charged and placed in pre-trial detention.

On Monday, the attorney general of the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal warned, during his opening speech before his court, that the public prosecutor “would ensure that certain odious and unacceptable remarks made on the fringes of this tragedy are punished to the full extent of the identification of their authors”.

“Freedom of expression is not a reason for judicial impunity on social networks” et “cannot be the false nose for the commission of crimes, the propagation of hatred of institutions and those who serve them or their relatives”added Franck Rastoul, without further details. On Monday, a tribute ceremony was organized for the gendarme in Nice, in the presence of the resigning Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin. “It’s not a refusal to comply, it’s a crime. It’s not a news item, it’s a social issue,” the minister had estimated.