A video, posted on social networks, shows a man who appears surrounded by three police officers, receiving baton blows from the head to the legs, before being slammed against the hood of a vehicle.
The affair caused the government to react. BFMTV tracked down the young Franco-Kurd who was beaten by police on January 19 before being released. A minor and aged 17, he is traumatized, relatives say. His family plans to file a complaint.
In the images, filmed from above, we see the young man being forcefully taken towards a vehicle by three police officers, wearing helmets and carrying batons. He received a baton blow to the head then several other blows to the legs. Then pressed against the hood, the young man suffered further blows to the knee, again by the same police officer. Another police officer then punches him in the face and pulls him by the hair, before he flees, under insults: “asshole”, “kebab on legs”.
After this muscular arrest which took place on January 19, rue Bichat in Paris (10th arrondissement), the prosecutor’s office entrusted an investigation to the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN), the police force, to shed light on the context of this arrest “during which police officers were seen carrying baton blows”.
“He is in shock and he no longer leaves his house”
According to our information, the young man in question, Yassine, a 17-year-old Franco-Kurd who BFMTV was able to identify, was demonstrating that evening in support of Rojava, a rebel region of Syria controlled by the Kurds, when scuffles broke out between demonstrators and the police. Yassine is a minor and attends a high school in Ile-de-France.
Yassine and his parents are now awaiting the results of the IGPN investigation. “He is traumatized, he is in shock and he no longer leaves his house,” said a relative contacted by BFMTV. “The blows to the face hurt him, because he had burns from a recent motorcycle accident,” he continues.
According to our information, his family plans to file a complaint. Contacted by BFMTV, a lawyer for several demonstrators of January 19, Mr. David Andic, said he was instructed by several people injured that day. The Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, also asked the Paris police headquarters to open an administrative investigation.
