French policeman to be tried over 2023 killing of teen

Protestors attend a silent march called by the mother of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk who was killed by police to mark one year since his death, in Nanterre, west of Paris, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

VERSAILLES, France -- A French policeman who shot and killed a teenager in 2023 outside Paris, sparking nationwide protests, will stand trial for violence that led to death, an appeals court said Thursday.

The officer was initially to appear in a criminal court with a jury on the more serious charge of murdering Nahel Merzouk, 17, in the driving seat of a car on June 27, 2023. But his lawyer appealed.

The Versailles appeals court ruled that it had “not been established that Florian M. had intended, at the moment of shooting, to take the driver’s life”.

“Florian M. could have been convinced that by restarting, the Mercedes was likely to endanger the physical integrity of third parties or of himself,” the court added.

It said he should be tried on the lesser charge in a criminal court without a jury.

Mobile phone footage of an officer shooting Nahel inside a car during a traffic stop on a busy street went viral following the incident, sparking days of protests.

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 by a stationary car, with one pointing a weapon at its driver.

Florian M. was released from custody in November 2023 after five months in detention.

‘Scandalous’ ruling

Lawyer Laurent-Franck Lienard, who represents the officer, said the appeals court should have dropped the charges because his client had simply “followed the law”.

Frank Berton, an attorney representing Merzouk’s mother, denounced the Versailles court’s decision as “scandalous” and “shameful”.

Downgrading the charge was tantamount to protecting the police officer from facing a jury, he said.

Few cases of alleged police brutality make it to criminal court in France, as most are dealt with internally.

In 2024, a judge gave suspended jail sentences to three officers who inflicted irreversible rectal injuries on a black man, Theo Luhaka, during a stop-and-search in 2017.

France’s top court last month ruled against reopening an investigation into the 2016 death of a young black man in police custody, in a case that triggered national outcry.

The family of Adama Traore, who died aged 24, has vowed to take the case to Europe’s top rights court.

In January, several thousand people protested in Paris over the death in custody of a Mauritanian immigrant worker, El Hacen Diarra, 35. He died after passing out at a police station following his violent arrest.

The European Court of Human Rights last year ruled against France over its police discriminating against a young man during identity checks, the first such ruling over alleged racial profiling.

By Romane Rosset, AFP