PARIS (Dispatches) -- Protesters in the French capital Paris have taken to the streets after three Muslim teens were run over by a police vehicle and seriously injured, in what their lawyer have characterized as an “assassination attempt.”
Among those taking part in the protest rally were family members and friends of the three victims, who were hospitalized after a police car rammed into their scooter last month as they were returning home from a mosque during the holy month of Ramadan.
The protesters carried signs and placards as they chanted slogans against increasing police brutality across the European country.
“My sister is in critical condition, still hospitalized. My brother has a kidney injury. My family is going through a hard time. We are participating in this rally to tell the children that we support them and that this must not happen again,” said a relative of one of the teens taking part in the protest rally.
According to local press reports, the injured children were a 17-year-old girl, who was driving the scooter, her 13-year-old brother and another boy aged 14. The girl was hospitalized following the incident, her brother injured in the kidneys and the other boy was hurt on the knee.
The girl still remains in the hospital, suffering from serious injuries to her head.
While French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin admitted that the police officers had committed “actions that were not appropriate” and been suspended from duties pending the investigation, the attorney representing the families of the victims described the police action against the Muslim teens as an “assassination attempt.”
“When you take chase and you prepare to run over a vehicle with three minors on it, it can effectively be considered an assassination attempt,” said the attorney, Arié Alimi. “What’s going through a police officer’s head when they’re driving their vehicle committing this act? Where is the training?”
Alimi has filed a formal legal complaint over “attempted murder by a person holding public authority, with a weapon by destination, on minors”.
He said witnesses to the police action had been “threatened with arrest [and] intimidated,” noting that he would also be looking to lodge a complaint of “measures of intimidation”, “threatening a witness” and “intimidation aiming to hinder the investigation.”
The lawyer also criticized Darmanin for his “late intervention” in the flagrant police brutality case and said that “procedural errors” had been in the works from the beginning following the incident.
“In addition to the serious events that took place, there was a desire for a cover-up, intimidation to prevent the investigation from taking place and the truth from coming out,” the attorney said.
“This must stop. The next time, there will be deaths. These are children. We can’t kill children,” Alimi added.
Among the participants in the anti-police-brutality protest in Paris on Sunday was Assa Traore, the sister of Adamad Traore -- another Muslim and African victim of police violence who was killed while in police custody in 2016.