French interior minister to meet with police unions as protest affects courts

Courts in several areas of France say they have seen a notable drop in cases after more than a week of protests from police officers - who are either calling in sick en masse or placing themselves on restricted duties.

Interior minister Gérald Darmanin says he will meet with police unions on Thursday night, as officers continue to protest against what they consider to be the inappropriate detainment of one of their colleagues.

The meeting will take place at 8pm at the Ministry of Interior offices in Paris.

Police protest action in France's second largest city has begun to have ripple effects on the French judicial system, with less arrests being made and therefore fewer referrals being sent on to prosecutor's offices. 

Marseille courts have also struggled to find police escorts to take suspects to court, according to reporting by BFMTV. Multiple police stations in the city have remained closed to the public, and others have turned away non-emergency business, such as wanting to report a burglary.

Several hundred Marseille police officers went off on sick leave on Friday. The Unité SGP Police union then called on officers across the country to place themselves on "code 562" - which means that they only respond to emergency and essential missions.

The action is in response to a judge's decision to place a Marseille officer - suspected of having severely beaten a man during the recent riots - in custody, rather than releasing the officer on bail pending trial.

The attack victim, a 21-year-old man named Hedi had to have emergency surgery to remove part of his skull and may still lose the vision in one eye, he told French media.

Hedi, 22 ans, a été touché par un tir de LBD, roué de coups et laissé pour mort par la BAC de Marseille. Une partie de son crâne a dû être retiré pour le sauver. Il témoigne et raconte comment il envisage l’avenir. pic.twitter.com/PGsLcqjrGu

— Konbini news (@konbininews) July 26, 2023

 

Police chiefs, though they may not support the protest movement, have agreed with anger felt by officers.

"In general, I believe that ahead of a possible trial, a police officer should not be in prison, even if he may have committed serious faults or errors in the course of his work," France's national police chief Frederic Veaux in an interview with the Le Parisien newspaper published on Monday.

READ MORE: Why are police in Marseille refusing to go to work?

As for the impacts on French courts, public prosecutors also blame the drop in cases being sent to them as also having to do with a higher volume of officers out of work to recover after the intensity of riots following the death of Nahel M, who was killed by a police officer in Nanterre outside of Paris.

"There's the police movement, as well as the fact that some officers are off recuperating after the recent riots. In my opinion, this drop is multidimensional", Jean-Baptiste Bladier, a public prosecutor in the Seine-et-Marne département, told BFMTV.

Several public prosecutor's offices across the country have noted drops in 'deferrals' in the last week. In France, after being held in police custody, the accused is then transferred to a court (ie a 'deferral') and either placed in front of a public prosecutor, who will decide next steps, or in front of a judge (un juge d'instruction) who may choose to open an investigation. 

Bladier told BFMTV that in July 2022, his office had an average of 42 deferrals per week. In comparison, they saw approximately 20 this past week.

In Bobigny, in Seine-Saint-Denis, a similar trend has been going on. The public prosecutor's office told BFMTV they have noted a "downward trend in line with the drop in the number of police custody cases taken since the start of the week".

As for the Paris public prosecutor's office, they told the French news channel that their number of deferrals had been halved in recent days, as a result of fewer arrests being made.