French Police Officers Go on Trial Over Zecler Beating

Three French police officers went on trial in Paris on Monday (Nov 9) over the 2020 beating of music producer Michel Zecler, in a rare police brutality case to reach a criminal court, AFP reported.

The officers, identified only as Aurelien B., 29, Pierre P., 37, and Philippe T., are charged with intentional violence committed in a group and with forgery over an official report allegedly written to cover up their actions. They face up to 15 years in jail.

Michel Zecler trial runs to Nov 20

The Michel Zecler trial opened at 9.30am before the Paris departmental criminal court, made up of five professional judges and no jury, and is scheduled to run until Nov 20, according to the NGO Index.

Index said a fourth officer, charged over throwing a tear-gas grenade into the studio, will be tried separately.

Assault caught on studio cameras

Police stopped Zecler, now 47, outside his Paris studio on Nov 21, 2020, accusing him of not wearing a mandatory face mask and suspecting him of cannabis use, AFP said. The officers pushed him into the entrance of his office and beat him, in an attack recorded by the studio’s security cameras.

Investigators found he was hit with about 30 punches and truncheon blows over roughly five minutes, to the face and body. The officers’ arrest report claimed the producer had hit them and tried to seize a truncheon, but footage released days later by French website Loopsider refuted this.

A medical report noted craniofacial trauma, wounds to his lip and scalp, and a complete rupture of a biceps tendon, leaving him unable to work for 45 days. Zecler now has a titanium anchor in his left arm and says he still has nightmares.

Racist insults not in indictment

Alleged racist insults are not part of the indictment, AFP said, although France’s ombudswoman found that police had used racist insults, according to four witnesses. The accused deny this. Index said the investigating judges did not uphold the racist nature of the violence, as prosecutors had requested.

“I expect this trial to hold the police officers accountable,” Zecler told AFP. The officers’ lawyers declined to comment before the trial.

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