All the people placed in police custody following the evacuation, Tuesday evening, May 6, of pro-Palestinian activists who occupied the Sorbonne had been released Wednesday evening, except one, said the Paris prosecutor’s office.
One of the 86 police custody was extended for acts of violence against a private security agent, added this source. Three were lifted for people who will be “subsequently reconvened” in open hearing for participation in a prohibited demonstration. Another person was the subject of alternatives to prosecution for possession of incendiary devices. 47 police custody “were lifted in order to continue the preliminary investigation”, also announced the public prosecutor. Finally, 34 police custody cases were lifted and classified for insufficiently serious offences, the prosecution said.
The evacuation of pro-Palestinian activists from the Parisian University of the Sorbonne on the evening of Tuesday, May 7, resulted in the placement in police custody of 86 people, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced on Wednesday, specifying the following offenses : “voluntary damage, participation in a group with a view to preparing violence against people or destruction/damage of property, rebellion, violence against a person holding public authority or intrusion into the premises of an educational establishment school in a meeting with the aim of disturbing the tranquility or good order of the establishment.”
The police intervened on Tuesday to put an end to rallies and blocking actions by pro-Palestinian activists, echoing repeated messages of firmness from the government.
Less than twenty-four hours after the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, recalled that there would be no “never right to block” in French universities, the police entered the Sorbonne to evacuate demonstrators who had occupied an amphitheater for around two hours, “solidarity” with Gaza, noted a journalist from Agence France-Presse.
The students, who numbered around a hundred inside, according to corroborating sources, were taken out slowly into the street, sometimes carried at arm’s length by agents. The police headquarters reported 88 arrests during this intervention which ended shortly before midnight, according to the rectorate and a police source.