The Versailles Court of Appeal on Thursday decided to keep in custody the police officer who fatally shot Nahel, a teenager of North African descent, on 27 June during a roadside check, a source close to the case told AFP.
The police motorcyclist, Florian M., was charged with culpable homicide and imprisoned last Thursday. The officer is being held at the Santé prison in Paris and appeared via videoconference before the Court of Appeal.
Florian M. and a fellow police officer stopped 17-year-old Nahel for a traffic check last Tuesday. When the teenager refused to comply and tried to drive away, Florian M. fired his weapon at point-blank range, hitting Nahel in the chest and killing him. The boy's car, which had other two passengers, crashed into a street pole.
At the Thursday hearing, the police officer was represented by his lawyer, Laurent-Franck Liénard, who had appealed against his client’s detention. "For him, it’s totally hopeless. He’s taking this news in his stride, it’s a nightmare for him, he’s still got hope, he’s going to keep fighting, but will he still have the energy?" the lawyer said.
Differing accounts
The French police had originally claimed that the teenage driver had attempted to run over the officers before Florian M. had fired his weapon, but a video of the incident shortly surfaced disproving the police's account.
The police officer was detained that afternoon on charges of "involuntary homicide", which were later changed to "voluntary homicide" after the video disproved the initial version of events, triggering days of protests across the country – with anger even spreading to Brussels.
On the video footage, before the gunshot, a voice is heard saying: "You're going to get a bullet in the head." According to documents obtained by Le Parisien, Florian M. has denied saying that phrase in his testimony to police investigators.
According to the account of one of the surviving passengers from Nahel's car, that phrase was uttered by Florian's colleague, after Florian had said "Turn off the engine or I'll shoot you!" to the teenage driver.
Recently, a French far-right personality set up a fundraiser on behalf of the officer who killed Nahel, having raised over €1 million in donations until it was shut down by the creator on Tuesday night.
The 17-year-old boy is the third person to have been killed by French police during a traffic check, according to government data. In 2022, there were 13 people who died this way, which is six times more than the year before, AFP reports.
After the death of Nahel and the ensuing protests, the UN has called on France to address "the deep-rooted problems of racism and racial discrimination" in its police force.
In response, to the UN statement, the French Foreign Affairs Ministry has said that any accusation of racism against its law enforcement officials is "totally unfounded."
