Two women, aged 24 and 23, filed a complaint on Thursday, claiming to have been beaten several times on the Clichy bridge in Asnières (Hauts-de-Seine) by police officers, who for their part filed a complaint for violence.
One of them also denounced an attempt to tear off her hijab by a police officer. “We are in the presence of a racist, sexist and Islamophobic attack”, estimated their lawyer Me Nabil Boudi.
The three police officers filed a complaint
The facts date from Thursday, April 14. Videos of the scene then circulated on social media.
Then, on Saturday April 16, the three police officers concerned filed a complaint for “contempt”, “rebellion in a meeting” and “violence against persons holding public authority”, leading to the opening of a preliminary investigation in Nanterre.
According to their story, reported in a tweet by the police headquarters, the two women “crossed the road” while the police patrol had “activated the sound and light warning devices, to control an offending vehicle”.
“Despite the emergency, two women crossed the road, outraged the police and evaded control in the middle of a crowd which intervened”, continued the police headquarters on Saturday.
The version of the two women differs widely
According to their complaint against X consulted on Thursday, they were crossing at a pedestrian crossing when a police car activated its flashing lights “to force the passage” and “suddenly braked in the middle of the lane when arriving at their level”.
The two women say that a policeman then got out of the vehicle “to check them” and struck “several slaps” to one of them, who also denounced a ventral tackle.
The latter “lost her balance and was systematically raised by the policeman before receiving the next slap”, accuses the complaint again.
Two police officers would have “attempted to tear off the veil”
Two other police officers are accused of hitting the second young woman “in the back and chest”, and of having insulted her as a “dirty bitch” before she “lost consciousness”.
Two of the police also allegedly “tried to tear the veil” from the young woman who says she was slapped.
The complaint, filed for “willful violence” and “public insult” by persons holding public authority, also denounces an identity check “illegal in form” because it is based on “the only distinctive element of the two young women”: “ wearing the hijab”.