This 35-year-old Egyptian was in the van chased at the Italian border, its driver having refused to stop several times in front of the police.
The 35-year-old Egyptian injured by police fire in the Alpes-Maritimes died of his injuries on the evening of Wednesday June 15, indicates the Nice prosecutor’s office at Figaro. He had been shot by an official who tried to stop the van with which smugglers had just forced a roadblock from Italy, four other migrants on board.
Read alsoRefusal to comply in Nice: a migrant seriously injured in the head, the IGPN seized
After an alert from the Italian authorities, the refrigerated van suspected of transporting “illegal aliens“Was located overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday in Sospel, a town in the Alpes-Maritimes near the Italian border, said the public prosecutor of Nice, Xavier Bonhomme, in a press release. Faced with the driver’s refusal to comply, the border police engaged in a chase with the vehicle, until the intervention of another crew about thirty kilometers below, in Cantaron, on a steep road near Nice. . But “the van would have accelerated towards (this) police vehicleand one of the officials would then have “uses his weapon four timesto try to stop her.
SEE ALSO – Refusal to comply in Paris: “He would never have been able to run into the police”, testifies the driver’s sister
The van ended its escape in the sensitive district of Les Moulins, in Nice, where it was abandoned by its driver and his two passengers seated in the front. Inside, five migrants were discovered, including a 35-year-old Egyptian man who was shot in the head and transportedin absolute vital emergency” to the hospital. According to the prosecutor, two bullet holes were identified on the van, a first at the level of the front light, the second above the front tire, which pierced the refrigerated container.
Two open investigations
Two investigations have been opened by the prosecution. One for “assistance with the entry and movement in France of foreigners in an irregular situation in conditions incompatible with human dignity“, but also “refusal to comply aggravated by endangering others and attempted homicide of a person holding public authority“, entrusted to the departmental directorate of the border police, detailed the prosecutor.
Read alsoMigrants: how the relocation of asylum seekers is systemic in Rwanda
The other, fromcount of willful violence with a weapon by a person holding public authority followed by incapacity for more than eight days“, was entrusted to the IGPN, the police force, “in order to ascertain whether the police officer was in a state of self-defence“. The official has been in custody since 9 a.m. this Thursday morning for “intentional violence with a weapon resulting in death without intention to give it.”
The Roya valley, on the Franco-Italian border, is, with the Hautes-Alpes, one of the crossing points for migrants between the two countries, after their arrival from Africa, via the Mediterranean. Smugglers are regularly judged in immediate appearance in Nice. France has restored border controls since 2015, a year marked by several deadly attacks. Contacted by AFP, the Alpes-Maritimes prefecture was unable to give recent figures on the number of non-admissions at the border in recent months.
SEE ALSO – “The police kill”: Macron points to Mélenchon and refuses “to accept that we insult” the police