Over 200 people gathered near Bobigny Court, north of Paris, on Saturday to honour an Algerian man, Amara Slimani, who was killed by an off-duty police officer using his service weapon, according to AFP correspondent reports.
The demonstrators displayed an Algerian flag and a banner reading “Justice for Amara Slimani” on the road leading to the court.
On June 29, a traffic safety officer fired seven shots at Amara Slimani, who had entered his grandmother’s garage in Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis), as stated by the regional public prosecutor Eric Mathais.
The 27-year-old officer has been charged with murder and placed in custody. The accused felt “threatened” after the victim “approached him carrying a tool.”
The investigating judge overruled the public prosecutor’s request to place the officer under judicial supervision.
Yassine Bouzrou, the lawyer representing the Algerian man’s family, criticized the public prosecutor’s stance, calling it scandalous.
“The public prosecutors of Bobigny and Paris, under the authority of Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti, consider that a police officer committing a hate-fueled murder against an Algerian does not warrant pretrial detention.”
The lawyer further explained that the off-duty officer fired seven times at Slimani, hitting him once in the head and twice in the back.
During the gathering, the victim’s older brother, Rachid Slimani, stated, “We want justice for Amara.”
Many attendees carried the flag of the Kabylie region, where the 28-year-old Amara originated.
Among the participants were parliament members Ali Diawara of the New People’s Ecological and Social Union and Mathilde Panot of La France Insoumise.
A relative of the victim expressed anger and disgust, saying, “There are too many policemen who think they are Rambo.”
The judicial police in Seine-Saint-Denis have been assigned to investigate the case.
