two agents of the BRAV-M sentenced to suspended prison-Liberation

Two BRAV-M police officers were sentenced to suspended prison on Monday in Paris for riding a motorcycle on a demonstrator and having struck him, on the sidelines of a mobilization against the pension reform in 2023. A third police officer, suspected of having kicked the demonstrator, was released, the criminal court having considered that it was not a voluntary violence.

« Given the severity of the facts », The driver of the motorcycle, Vincent V., was sentenced to twelve months suspended prison sentence, five years of ban on wearing of weapons and above all a definitive ban on the function of police or gendarme. Another civil servant, Mathias M., was sentenced to eight months suspended prison sentence for hitting the young man intentional.

These sorrows are more severe than those claimed by the prosecution. « This is a decision that we do not accept ! «  said Jérôme Spyridonos, lawyer’s lawyer, who will appeal the judgment.

The evening of the facts, on March 21, 2023, in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, two crews of the Brav-M-two bikers and two passengers-had intervened after witnesses reported the behavior of people launching projectiles.

The scene was immortalized by two videos, operated by the « police police » investigators. One was recorded by a passer-by and widely disseminated on social networks, the other comes from the shiny camera carried by one of the police officers questioned.

We see a young man escape to escape the bikers, tripping on the sidewalk, then being caught by the police. One of the bikers accelerates, his vehicle advances to the left leg of Valentin P., before blows were brought to him, accompanied by insults. We then see the police meet and tell their colleagues: « We just struck a guy, we dismantled him, we cut him ! « 

Valentin P., a 19 -year -old student at the time of the facts, had been prescribed a total eight -day work incapacity, the emergency caregivers signaling important bruises as well as a 56 cm hematoma behind the left tibia.

The BRAV-M (brigades for the repression of the motorized violent action) were created in spring 2019 in order to intervene quickly during demonstrations, urban violence or degradations. They are regularly accused of excessive use of force.

Last week, a police officer from this brigade was found guilty of violence on a human rights observer during a demonstration in Paris on May 1, 2021.