Sentences ranging from three months to three years in suspended prison were requested on Thursday January 18 against three police officers tried at the Seine-Saint-Denis assizes, for the violent arrest in 2017 of Théodore Luhaka, seriously injured in the anus with a telescopic baton.
The heaviest sentence – three years suspended prison sentence – was requested against the peacekeeper Marc-Antoine Castelain, author of the baton attack, who is being prosecuted for intentional violence resulting in permanent disability.
For the two other defendants, Jérémie Dulin and Tony Hochart, prosecuted for intentional violence, the attorney general requested suspended prison sentences of six and three months respectively.
Just before delivering his submissions, the attorney general, Loïc Pageot, addressed Mr. Luhaka by declaring: “you will perhaps think that these sentences may seem derisory.” “We start with a banal identity check and ultimately a shattered life,” Mr. Pageot also said.
The three police officers are accused of having committed several brutal acts on the victim, 22 years old at the time, during an identity check that went wrong, on February 2, 2017 in Aulnay-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint- Denis). The scene was captured by the city's video surveillance cameras.
Irreversible aftereffects
We see four men in uniform – one of them will be exonerated – coming to meet a group of young people at the foot of a building. One minute after the start of the check, the situation deteriorated.
Struggling with the officers, the young man struggles, loses his jacket, finds himself on the ground, receives blows and tear gas, before being picked up and blocked against a low wall by the police, who struggle to handcuff him.
It was then that agent Marc-Antoine Castelain, who was behind Mr. Luhaka, stabbed him in the buttocks with the tip of his baton, which caused a rupture of the anal sphincter. The young man collapsed to the ground, where he continued to receive blows.
Despite two surgical operations, Mr. Luhaka, now 29 years old, has irreversible after-effects, according to medical experts.
During the trial, the police officer expressed his “compassion” after causing the serious injury, but considered his “legitimate blow”, “taught in school”. An administrative investigation by the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) concluded that there was “a disproportionate use of force”.
The verdict is expected Friday.
