After the boys’ deaths, judges opened an investigation and recommended that the police officers face trial. But the state prosecutor, arguing that no crime had been committed, went to the appeals court and the case was dropped. The families fought on through higher appeals courts, and the trial will now run for five days in Rennes, Brittany.
The two officers are charged with “non-assistance to a person in danger” for allegedly failing to come to the boys’ aid. The police did not notify the French energy company, EDF, that the boys were hiding in the substation. The police officers’ lawyers have argued that they never thought the boys were in the substation. Much of the trial will hinge on a conversation between the two officers, one on the ground and one on the phone switchboard, and whether they discussed how dangerous the substation was.
If found guilty, the police officers could face up to five years in prison and a 75,000 euro fine.
“To finally learn what happened and to understand,” said Bouna’s elder brother, Siyakha Traore. The case would at last allow the families to grieve and show that the boys’ deaths had been a wake-up call for the country.
At a demonstration in Paris Sunday, Sihame Assbague, spokeswoman for the group Stop le Controle au Facies—Stop Racial Profiling—told The Guardian newspaper, “It’s very difficult to get justice in police cases today. We feel there’s a certain impunity … Everyone is watching this case very closely. Zyed and Bouna’s deaths shocked France. We just want to see justice.”
(Special to the NNPA from the Global Information Network)
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