Police officer prosecuted for beating handcuffed man to death

A police officer was indicted on January 11, suspected of having fatally punched a 48-year-old man in the face, who was handcuffed, during his arrest after a brawl in August 2023 in Paris.

The peacekeeper, Théo M., now 28 years old, is being prosecuted for intentional violence leading to death without intention of causing it, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Monday, confirming information from “Libération”.

He was placed under judicial supervision “with a ban on coming into contact with his co-perpetrators or accomplices, witnesses to the offense and the victim’s family and from exercising his activity as a police officer on the public highway” , said the prosecution.

Contacted, his lawyer Mr. Laurent-Franck Liénard did not respond.

Tamer M., born in Israel and Palestinian, according to “Libération”, was arrested by police on August 17, 2023, around 3:30 a.m., near the Gare de l’Est after a brawl with several people.

According to the exploitation of video surveillance cameras, he had tried to hit the protagonists of the brawl with a screwdriver. A first man, unidentified, “grabbed him by the neck to brutally push him away”, a second “had punched Tamer M.’s left side and a third man, himself obviously armed with a a knife, had struck him in the legs.”

Tamer M. had been restrained by RATP security agents. He “had been brought to the ground after one of the agents locked his arm, according to several witnesses who had not noticed any apparent injuries on his person,” detailed the prosecution.

When the police patrol arrived, “virulent” and “obviously drunk, he was handcuffed and installed in the back of the police vehicle,” according to the prosecution.

The police officer explained that Tamer M., sitting next to him, “headbutted him, causing him four days of ITT” (total incapacity for work). He “pushed him back and then punched him several times in the face,” according to the same source.

According to the prosecution, during his hearing, “another member of the crew” maintained that Tamer M. “hit his head against the door, and tried to strike the seated peace officer next to him; she pushed him away with her hand.”

The two police officers then drove him to the 10th arrondissement police station and, according to their statements, “Tamer M. had fallen asleep and snored during the journey.”

He had not woken up when he arrived at the police station and had “bleeding wounds” on his face. “He was taken to Lariboisière hospital, where he was found to be in a coma,” continued the public prosecutor.

His condition worsened and he died a week later, on August 24, 2023. “The autopsy concluded that he died from serious craniofacial trauma,” according to the prosecution.

The Paris public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation and then a judicial investigation on August 31, 2023, entrusted to the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN).

The witnesses heard as part of this judicial investigation “confirmed the absence of violence committed by RATP agents”, specified the prosecution.

According to “Libération”, the family or relatives of the victim have not been found.

Several cases of police violence have been revealed in recent years, notably during the “yellow vest” demonstrations.

The death of young Nahel, 17, killed on June 27, 2023 by a police officer during a road check in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine) had relaunched the debate in France on police violence and caused several nights of serious urban violence in many cities.

In another case that has become emblematic, that of the death of Cédric Chouviat, investigating judges ordered on December 17 that three police officers be tried by the Paris Criminal Court for involuntary manslaughter. They are accused of having engaged in “inappropriate, negligent and reckless behavior” leading to the death of the delivery man, who had nevertheless repeated “I am suffocating” during his arrest in January 2020.