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POLICE

Three French police charged over man’s death during riots

Three French police officers were charged on Thursday over the death of a 27-year-old man in the southern city of Marseille in early July during nationwide rioting, prosecutors said.

Three French police charged over man's death during riots
French riot police officers next to a burning out trash bin during rioting in Marseille. Illustration photo by CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU / AFP

The three will be charged with “armed violence”, the prosecutor said, after the autopsy of the man who died during riots showed marks on his chest consistent with the impact of a shot from a blast ball commonly used by police.

The three are also banned from having any contact with plaintiffs in the case, and from participating in any police contingent concerned with urban riot control or large-scale events.

They had been arrested on Tuesday over the incident, the only known death linked to the unrest that gripped France in late June and early July over killing of a teenager by a policeman during a traffic check outside Paris on June 27th.

The riots were met by a forceful police response.

The man, Mohamed Bendriss – a married father of one whose widow is now expecting a second child – died after feeling unwell while riding a scooter.

The prosecutor’s office has said it considers it “probable” that the man’s death was “caused by a violent impact to the thorax caused by the firing of a projectile of the blast ball type”.

The decision by the prosecutor comes after a separate case in which four Marseille officers were charged with a violent assault on a 21-year-old man, which also took place during the rioting. He was so badly injured that surgeons had to remove a large part of his skull to save his life.

After one of the charged officers was remanded in custody, police in Marseille called in sick en masse in protest, while officers across the country placed themselves on restricted duties – essentially refusing to respond to non-emergency calls.

READ ALSO Why are police in Marseille refusing to go to work?

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CRIME

French cinema boss on trial for sexual assault

The head of France's top cinema institution Dominique Boutonnat denied sexually assaulting his godson as he went on trial Friday in a case that has led to calls for him to step down.

French cinema boss on trial for sexual assault

The trial comes as French cinema reels from a renewed #MeToo reckoning that has seen several big names, including acting legend Gerard Depardieu, accused of sexual abuse.

READ ALSO: French actor Gérard Depardieu to be tried for sexual assault in October

Activists have denounced Boutonnat’s continued leadership of the National Centre of Cinema (CNC), whose role includes overseeing measures to curb sexual violence in the industry.

His godson accuses him of trying to masturbate him during a holiday in Greece in 2020 when he was 19.

“I looked at him to find my godfather and that’s when I saw someone completely different… It was someone using me to masturbate,” the godson, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court.

Boutonnat responded in court that it was his godson who had initiated the situation and kissed him.

“I feel bad about leaving an ambiguous situation, but to say there was a sexual assault is false,” he told the court.

He was placed under investigation in February 2021 but still reappointed by the government as head of the CNC in July 2022.

Training to prevent abuse has in recent months become obligatory for films seeking public funding via the CNC.

The CNC told AFP that the case against Boutonnat came from “the private sphere” and had no relation to its activities.

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