France: 3 police officers charged over death of man during nationwide riots

In an unusual instance of officers facing a criminal case over on-duty violence, three police officers, on Thursday, were charged over the death of a 27-year-old man in the southern French city of Marseille during nationwide riots that took place in early July, prosecutors said.

Five officers were arrested over the incident on Tuesday, out of which two were released quickly.

Last month, France was jolted by fierce rioting over the killing of a 17-year-old in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, who was shot dead by a policeman for fleeing a traffic check and failing to comply with an order to stop his car.

The riots in the country witnessed a violent response from the police as hundreds of people were arrested and several police officers suffered wounds.

The 27-year-old who lost his life in the riots was identified as Bendriss, who was a married man and a father of one. His widow is now expecting a second child. As per reports, Bendriss died after feeling unwell while riding a scooter.

His postmortem showed traces on his chest, of what as per reports could be the impact of a shot from a blast ball, known in French as an LBD and commonly used by the country's police.

Prosecutors have said they consider 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 three will be charged with "armed violence unintentionally causing death".

However, the prosecutor's office also said that there is a probability that the victim may have been involved in the looting of a shoe outlet in the city.

There were indications that Bendriss had been involved in theft from the store, and was being chased by police as he rode his scooter away.

As he rode on the pavement farther from the police, he was he was struck by one shot, and another, launched by police.

As per the prosecutors, he continued to ride his scooter but was later found to have suffered cardio-respiratory arrest and later died.

Latest controversy around Marseille police

The investigation into this matter is the latest controversy to surround the Marseille police.

Earlier, a 22-year-old, named Hedi, had to have a part of his skull amputated after he was beaten up and fired on with an LBD on July 21 by a group of men who were suspected to be police officers.

Four Marseille police officers have been charged over the incident, whereas, three others have been released under judicial supervision. The fourth has been remanded in custody during the time period of the probe. His arrest caused huge controversy among the French police.

As a result, the officers throughout the country went on sick leave in order to stage a demonstration but a court last week denied the appeal against his detention.

The officer, in the court, admitted to firing a blast ball round, which reversed an earlier denial.However, he claimed that he did not witness anybody sustaining injuries. His lawyer added that there was no proof it was his round that had wounded Hedi.

The powerful police union, Alliance, said the ruling was "incomprehensible and very unfair".

(With inputs from agencies)

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