By AFP
Paris – A French policeman who shot and killed a teenager at point-blank range in 2023 outside Paris, sparking days of riots, is to go on trial on a murder charge, a court said Tuesday.
The trial of the officer, who has been charged with the murder of Nahel Merzouk, 17, could take place in the second or third quarter of 2026, the court in the Paris suburb of Nanterre where the killing took place said in a joint statement with investigating magistrates.
The officer, identified as Florian M., was released from custody in November 2023 after five months in detention.
Mobile phone footage of an officer shooting Nahel inside a car during a traffic stop on a busy street went viral. The anger sparked protests that degenerated into rioting and led to scenes of devastation nationwide.
The police initially maintained that Nahel had driven his car at the officer but this was contradicted by the video, which showed two officers standing at a stationary car, with one pointing a weapon at its driver.
“Nothing shows Florian M. was authorised in the circumstances to use his weapon, in violation of the principles of proportionality and absolute necessity,” according to the written order issued by two investigating magistrates for the trial, which was seen by AFP.
However legal proceedings were dropped against the accused officer’s colleague who was present during the incident. He had been investigated as an “assisted witness”, which in the French system is one step before being charged.
“This order for a trial is both disappointing and not surprising,” said Laurent-Franck Lienard, Florian M.’s lawyer.
“The investigating judge would have had to be courageous to take a different position than that of the prosecution” which pushed for the trial, the lawyer told AFP, adding that he would lodge an appeal against the order.
“We maintain that the shooting was legitimate,” he said.
Frank Berton, a lawyer for Nahel’s mother Mounia Merzouk, said he was satisfied with the decision to go ahead.
“We are just seeing the law being applied,” he said. “Now all that remains is to convince the court.”
The move to try the officer over the death of Nahel, who was of north African origin, comes as new tensions have emerged over racism and security in France.
A man who had posted racist videos shot dead his Tunisian neighbour and badly wounded a Turkish man in the south of France at the weekend, and a Malian man was stabbed to death in a mosque in April.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, who is taking an increasingly hard line on immigration issues, has faced accusations of not taking a strong enough stance against such crimes and even fuelling a racist climate.
But he said Monday that “every racist act is an anti-French act”.
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