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CRIME

Paris police arrest British rocker Pete Doherty twice in three days

Just a day after British artist Pete Doherty was released following a cocaine bust, French police arrested him again after a drunken brawl in Paris.

Published: 11 November 2019 08:32 CET
Paris police arrest British rocker Pete Doherty twice in three days
File photo of Pete Doherty at a gig in 2016. Photo: Fred Tanneau/AFP

Doherty, 40, the front man of the Libertines, was arrested on Sunday for assaulting a man while drunk, said the Paris prosecutors' office.

His lawyer Arash Derambarsh said Doherty was arrested after a fight with another man who was also drunk, who had filed a complaint for assault against him.

After being released on Saturday from custody following an arrest for possession of cocaine, Doherty “went home then went out again to have a drink”, the lawyer added.

But because of the detox treatment he has been following for a month he cannot hold his drink, said Derambarsh.

Doherty was first arrested in the early hours of Friday morning when Paris police caught him just after he had bought cocaine.

The singer opted for a simplified procedure for people caught using drugs, agreeing to pay daily 50-euro fines for 100 days, failing which he will be jailed, the Paris prosecutors' office said.

A judge still has to sign off on that deal, however.

Derambarsh said on Saturday that his client, who is at the start of a major tour, had agreed to undergo a full-time medical treatment for his addiction to avoid a relapse.

The bad boy of British rock – as famous for having dated supermodel Kate Moss as for his music – has repeatedly made headlines for drugs offences.

In 2012, he was thrown out of a luxury rehab clinic in Thailand after claims he was a bad influence on other patients and did not try hard enough to kick his heroin habit.

Member comments

  1. “went home then went out again to have a drink” I’ve never met an alcoholic who had ‘A’ drink, whatever their intentions might have been. There’s plenty of help for him if he wants it.

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CRIME

French police search for gunmen after shootings in Paris suburb

French police were searching for gunmen after three people were killed in drug-related shootings in the Paris suburb of Sevran over the weekend.

Published: 6 May 2024 16:13 CEST
French police search for gunmen after shootings in Paris suburb

Two men were shot dead near a cultural centre in the Seine-Saint-Denis suburb, to the northeast of the French capital on Sunday evening, less than 48 hours after another fatal shooting nearby, according to authorities.

The victims of Sunday’s shooting were aged 35 and 31 and known for violence and drug trafficking, according to police sources.

One was shot in the head, with two suspects fleeing on foot, leaving the magazine of an automatic weapon and 18 spent bullet casings behind them.

The second man was hit six times.

The town of 52,000 people was on edge, mayor Stephane Blanchet told AFP, saying people were living in fear of another shooting.

“There is a huge feeling of fear, that it could start again and [that someone could be hit by] a stray bullet,” Blanchet said.

“If it had been a beautiful sunny day, there would have been more people outside,” when the latest shooting happened, he said.

In the first shooting, a 28-year-old man was killed on a nearby housing estate early on Saturday, with three others wounded.

In March, French President Emmanuel Macron announced an ‘XXL’ cleanup of drug trafficking in the southern port city of Marseille and other towns across France, including Sevran, where the drugs trade has been blamed for a spate of death and violence.

One drug dealing hotspot in Sevran was ‘eradicated’ in that operation, police said.

“We are aware that when we do that, we destabilise traffic, we create greed and sometimes there are clashes,” Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said on Sunday.

“But we will still continue,” he added.

Local La France insoumise MP Clementine Autain accused the government of abandoning some areas, and said the suburb, “did not have the police presence of other areas”.

Drug-related violence has often flared in Sevran – considered a hub of drug trafficking in France – with the then-mayor calling for UN peacekeepers to be deployed there in 2011.

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