Human rights groups and lawyers have criticised French police restraint techniques after a 42-year-old delivery driver died after being held on the ground during a police check near the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
France’s citizens’ rights ombudsman, Jacques Toubon opened an inquiry into the case of Cédric Chouviat, a father of five, who was stopped on Friday by police and died in hospital 48 hours later.
Police reportedly stopped Chouviat because they believed he had been looking at his phone while on a scooter. Video footage taken by mobile phone appeared to show Chouviat being held face down on the ground by officers, while his legs were shaking. The autopsy showed that when he died 48 hours later in hospital, there were signs of asphyxiation and a fractured larynx.
Paris prosecutors have opened their own preliminary manslaughter investigation to determine the exact circumstances of the police arrest. They will look at whether or not police holding Chouviat on the ground with the pressure of their weight on his torso might have played a role. The police watchdog is also investigating the case.
Lawyers for Chouviat’s family accused the authorities of trying to cover up heavy-handed police tactics.
The lawyer William Bourdon, said the death was the result of a “culture of impunity and denial that encourages police and absolves them of responsibility.”
An Amnesty International spokesperson said that particular restraint technique of applying weight and pressure to a person’s torso as they are held face-down on the ground was outlawed in several other countries because it carried a fatal risk, but France continued to practise it.
Arié Alimi, one of the family’s lawyers, said Chouviat was held down with force for three minutes.
The interior minister, Christophe Castaner, said the case raised legitimate questions and called for “transparency”.
An account by Paris police, obtained by AFP, said Chouviat’s behaviour had been “provocative” so they had proceeded to arrest.
Lawyers for the police involved said the case was a tragedy for the family and for the officers, and said the officers had the “absolute and total support of their hierarchy”.
Police restraint techniques have regularly been criticised in France. A group campaigning for justice for Adama Traoré, a young man who died in police custody in 2016, commented that Traoré had died after being subject to the same form of restraint and they were still fighting for the truth in the case. The group, La Vérité Pour Adama, said: “Adama Traoré’s last words were ‘I can’t breathe.’”
