Above: Police confront opponents of the Sivens dam project during a protest in Gaillac in memory of Remi Fraisse/ Source: AFP
This was the first time that police repression killed a protester under a Socialist Party government in France.
Almost one year after the activist’s death, the investigation has not moved an inch further since the police handed its conclusions to the judge in March, according to a shocking revelation issued by Le Monde on Friday; their version conveniently coincides with the government’s initial statement that denied any error from the police officials.
Remi Fraisse, a 21 year-old botanist, died on Oct. 25 around 2 a.m. local time, shortly after a military grenade hit his back while he was protesting with other environmental activists against the highly-controversial building of a dam in Sivens, in the southwestern department of Tarn.
Yet, according to Le Monde, which gained access to the report the police investigative body handed in March to the judge, the investigation not only stagnates, but “worse: it retrocedes.”
The gendarmerie’s report (the French military police) mainly investigated the tense atmosphere that preceded the incident rather than the facts themselves, revealed Le Monde, and its conclusions do not match with other elements of the investigation.
For instance, the policemen were not facing the “violent” attack that the report claimed, in a bid to justify the launch of the grenade – according to several testimonies from policemen themselves. Moreover, police did not properly warn the activists before launching the grenade, as the megaphone was broken, just as the spotlight, also contradicting with the report’s assertion the policemen launched the projectile with sufficient visibility (in the middle of the night).
Since the report was handed in March, no further investigation has been ordered. The head of the department, added Le Monde, along with his cabinet’s director, who were both in charge of the police operations never testified.
However, a few days after the activist’s death, a major with the French military police told the press the head “ordered (us) to show extreme firmness.” Immediately after Fraisse’s death, Minister of Interior Manuel Valls ruled out the possibility the policeman who launched the grenade could have committed any professional error.
On the same day Le Monde revelaed the report’s conclusion, one of the French major human rights group released a damming 75-page report directly charging the social-democrat government. According to the document, Fraisse’s death resulted from the “political authorities’ deliberate choice to excercize a major violence level, via the public forces,” against the protestors.
The League of Human Rights also slammed a “democratic deficit” in the decision to build the dam, a “disastrous management of the security operations,” and “organized disinformation.” This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address:
“http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/France-Probe-on-Police-Killing-of-Activist-Stalls-Amid-Scandal-20151024-0015.html”. If you intend to use it, please cite the source and provide a link to the original article. www.teleSURtv.net/english