It's the kind of birthday you'd rather never celebrate. Today, December 1, it has been 6 years since Ms. Zineb Redouane, 80 years old, was assassinated by a tear gas canister shot to the head. 6 years that the family waited for justice to deign to move a finger. This week, we learned that the police officer responsible for the shooting was indicted for “involuntary manslaughter”, 6 years after the incident. Two-tiered justice.
Reminder of the facts. It is December 1, 2018. The Yellow Vest uprising is sweeping the country. And in Marseille, anger is brewing following the collapse of unsanitary buildings which cost the lives of several residents. Thousands of people demonstrate for dignity, against poor housing, and are joined by the procession of Yellow Vests. On the Canebière, it’s a confrontation. Charges, grenades: Zineb Redouane, octogenarian, closes the window of his apartment on the fourth floor, to protect himself from the gas. She then receives a tear gas grenade, straight shot and in the head. She is very seriously injured in the face. Zineb Redouane died on December 2 in hospital.
The Minister of the Interior claims that the victim's death was not caused by the police. However, the CRS unit at the origin of the shooting will refuse to have its weapons examined: an obstruction of the investigation. Openly mafia-like practices. Even more serious, we learned that the police “cleaned” the crime scene immediately, going to recover the projectiles directly from the apartment of Zineb Redouane, who was dying at the time. Just as shocking, the prosecutor in charge of the case was with the CRS who fired at the time of the events! A photo taken on December 1 shows this magistrate dressed in ninja outfit alongside police lines. The man in charge of the file was therefore also at the heart of the repression.
The height of cynicism, he had accused the poor conditions of treatment of the victim in the hospital of being responsible for his death… He has since been removed from the case. An investigation by the Index working group will prove the CRS shot towards the window by precisely reconstructing the scene. The work that justice should have done was carried out by an independent investigative NGO.
If an investigation is opened in 2018, the name of the CRS will not be known until 2021. Since 2020, pseudo expert reports have abounded to whitewash the criminal. We learn in turn that the shooting was legal and the death of the victim was accidental. Then a counter-expertise concluded that a direct shot was prohibited. The IGPN returns to the hypothesis of a regulatory shooting and requests a simple referral of the police officer to the disciplinary council. In 2021, the Director General of the National Police (DGPN) Frédéric Veaux decides not to take it into account.
In the police officer's defense, “fatigue”, “lack of visibility”, “tension” and “the legally established necessity to shoot”. The killer and his supervisor, “very well rated”, therefore get away with a vulgar training to “remind the instructions in force on the use of means of defense”.
Let us remember that last year, prison sentences were handed out on the fly to young rebels after the death of Nahel for acts as serious as stealing a can. But the life of a Muslim woman in a working-class neighborhood has no value for these people. It also took steps from the family, a second opinion and the pugnacity of a lawyer so that this affair was not buried.
The State will do everything to erase the memory of the deceased. To commemorate the three years of her death, a plaque in the name of Zineb Redouane was placed in the street where she lived. Less than 24 hours later, the plaque was torn off. As if to erase all traces. The next day, the march in tribute to Zineb Redouane was banned by the prefecture.
In September 2024, therefore, a turnaround, the CRS is indicted. “The justice system knew from the beginning that it had to indict this police officer, but lacked courage in the face of all the pressures that existed in the case,” says the family's lawyer, Me Yassine Bouzrou, today. But the qualification of “involuntary” homicide still bears the mark of a logic of impunity. To be continued.
Between 1977 and 2022, at least 861 people died as a result of the actions of law enforcement. This is the figure that should make headlines. But the numbers have names and faces behind them. Zineb Redouane will forever remain one of them.
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