The Paris prosecutor's office says police have launched an internal investigation into the death of a man in custody last week. While the circumstances of the man’s death remain unclear, his family has denounced "intentional violence" and called for an independent probe.
El Hacen Diarra, 35, died Wednesday night in a Paris police station where he had been taken after police saw him allegedly rolling a joint, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.
The family has filed a legal complaint, accusing police of "intentional violence that led to a death", their lawyer Yassine Bouzrou told the French news agency AFP on Saturday.
Police said they arrested Diarra outside the migrant residence where he had been living for several months after he refused to be searched when they saw him “roll a cannabis joint”, the prosecutor’s office said.
Police reported that Diarra "fell to the ground" when he was arrested, bringing two officers down with him, and one officer said he used a taser on Diarra’s ankle.
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Police drove Diarra to the police station to be detained and questioned for possession of cannabis and forged administrative documents.
Once there he "was seen to pass out" on a bench in the police station, where he was waiting to be transferred to hospital to treat a “wound on his eyebrow”, the prosecutor said.
Diarra was pronounced dead shortly after midnight after police and firefighters called to the scene tried to resuscitate him.
Video footage shared online
The IGPN, the internal disciplinary body of the French police, has opened an inquiry.
His family have accused the police of violence that caused Diarra’s death, and they say a video filmed by neighbours proves it.
The video, which has been shared online, shows an officer punching what appears to be a man on the ground as another officer stands by and watches.
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Hundreds of people gathered in Paris’ 20th district on Sunday to pay homage to Diarra, including Abderrahmane Sylla, who ran the residence where he lived.
He told RFI that Diarra was just smoking a cigarette when he was stopped by police.
"Police found him there. Words were exchanged. The blows started. You have all seen the videos, and how they beat him up until he bled," he said.
Police violence in France
Several family members and supporters of victims of police violence attended the demonstration Sunday, including Assa Traoré, whose brother Adama died shortly after being taken into police custody in 2016. His death triggered accusations of police brutality and racism and several nights of protests.
"How is it that one can just die when interacting with the police?" Traoré asked. "That is why there were so many people today to denounce what is happening: this systemic racism that is at the heart of the institution of the police."
Cases of police brutality rarely make it to criminal court in France.
A court is to rule in March whether a police officer should face trial over the 2023 killing of a teenager, Nahel Merzouk, during a traffic stop, in a case that sparked nationwide protests.
In 2024, a judge gave suspended jail sentences to three officers who inflicted irreversible rectal injuries to a black man during a stop-and-search in 2017.
(with newswires)
