More than a thousand people demonstrated in Paris on Saturday to demand “justice,” more than a month after the death of a Mauritanian citizen in a police station in the French capital. The march, which included about 1,200 people according to police estimates cited by local media, was led by a large banner reading “Justice and Truth for El Hassen Diarra, assassinated by the police.” Participants raised slogans demanding clarification of the circumstances of his death and accountability for those responsible.
Press sources quoted Moussa Diarra, the victim’s cousin, as saying during the demonstration: “We wanted to organize this demonstration to receive an explanation from the police who killed him in cold blood, and to achieve justice.” The 35-year-old Mauritanian died on the night of January 15-16 while in police custody, following his arrest outside the workers’ residence where he lived.
A video clip filmed by a neighbor shows two police officers, one of whom is on his knees while delivering two punches to the victim, Diarra, as he lies on the ground. Five days after the incident, the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office announced the opening of a judicial investigation into a case of “intentional violence resulting in death by a person authorized to exercise public authority.”
For his part, the Diarra family’s lawyer reported filing a new complaint for “destruction of evidence,” denouncing the absence of any recordings from the cameras mounted on the uniforms of the police officers involved. The Public Prosecutor’s Office had explained that these cameras, which must be mounted on police uniforms, “were not in operation because their batteries had run out, and this was verified by the officer,” without providing further details about the officer’s duties.
A gathering was held in honor of the victim on January 18, and another march took place on the 25th of the same month, in which thousands of people participated.
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