International
FRANCE: Peaceful rally for man allegedly raped by cop turns violent
The suburb of Bobigny in the French capital of Paris witnessed a large turn-out of over 2,000 demonstrators who thronged out in protests which later turned violent amid anger over the case of a 22-year-old black youth worker who was allegedly raped with a police baton.
Scores of angry demonstrators gathered outside the courthouse in Bobigny as tempers boiled over in anger over the rape of the youth worker simply identified as Theo.
French police had a hard time quelling the violence as they fired tear gas at protesters who registered their anger by throwing projectiles at officers and set cars and rubbish bins alight.
Al Jazeera’s David Chater, reporting from Bobigny, said: “The whole area where the demonstration started is now soaking in tear gas.”
He said the protesters were taking out their anger and frustration “over what they see as a burning sense of injustice” out on the streets.
Read also: Rape of blackman accidental, French police say
A police statement said: “Several vehicles, including a media truck, were set on fire and police officers had to intervene to rescue a young child trapped in a burning vehicle.”
Investigations into the anal rape of a young blackman by an officer using a truncheon has been declared an accident by French police sparking further protest for justice for the victim.
According to a police source, having taken into account footage from CCTV and witness reports, “there are not enough elements to prove that it was a rape”.
Video footage from the scene of the incident according to a source, shows a cop “applying a truncheon blow horizontally across the buttocks with a truncheon and Theo’s trousers ”
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