Laurent-Franck Liénard, the lawyer for one of the three police officers soon to be tried for manslaughter in the investigation into the death of Cédric Chouviat, who died during an arrest, said he was “a little surprised” this Saturday on franceinfo, of the referral to trial of his client and the other accused.
Published on 04/01/2025 13:57
Reading time: 3min
In this case, the three police officers “exercised legitimate coercion” on a person “who rebelled”while they tried to handcuff him. This is what Laurent-Franck Liénard, the lawyer for one of the three police officers tried for manslaughter in the investigation into the death of Cédric Chouviat, believes. Concerning his client, he explains: “He grabbed an arm, he was trying to pull on this arm to put on a handcuff, which is a normal gesture for a police officer who arrests an individual who does not want to be arrested, and he finds himself in court for that? “
Maître Laurent-Franck Liénard continues, “We are accusing him of carelessness because he should have, when he was fighting against Cédric Chouviat, asked him how he was. It’s not serious, it’s not reasonable, I I don’t understand why this police officer should be brought before a court.” “We put him in a costume that is not his, which is much too big for him, we tell him that he would have had a responsibility, an involuntary responsibility, in the death of Cédric Chouviat”, adds the lawyer, assuring that if his client “had he realized that there was the slightest health concern, or the slightest risk for the individual he was arresting, he would have stopped immediately.”
Laurent-Franck Liénard also specifies that his client is “overwhelmed by it all”. He recalls on franceinfo that his client “was a very young police officer, trainee” during this arrest in 2020, and that the death of Cédric Chouviat was “a terrible shock”. “He suffered this death which is a big psychological break for him and now he is suffering the agonies of the procedure”adds the lawyer. According to him, his client will be able “finally explain”during this trial and “try to get out of this legal hell”. “I hope that the magistrates will have the necessary perspective in relation to the fault alleged against my client”he adds.
The widow of Cédric Chouviat qualified on franceinfo, Saturday January 4, that one of the three police officers is the “murderer of her husband”. According to Laurent-Franck Liénard, these are “excessive comments”. He reminds us that, not only is it not about his client, but above all “that there is no murderer of her husband”. “He did not die because someone killed him. We should not use this type of term, murderer. Murder is intentional homicide, it is the fact of having wanted to kill someone ‘one, we are very, very far from that’insists the lawyer.
“There is no murderer in this case, there never has been, never”repeats Laurent-Franck Liénard for whom “Mr Chouviat was not intentionally killed by a police officer”. For the lawyer, he died “during a police maneuver made necessary by his resistance”. Likewise, he considers “that there is no act of violence”. “We blame them for not having taken care of the state of health of the person they were arresting, we do not blame them for having killed him. It is false to claim this and it is completely wrong to mix the involuntary homicide that they are accused of and the intentional homicide that Cédric Chouviat’s widow speaks about.”he concludes.
