The prosecution “requested on March 7, 2023 from the investigating magistrate the indictment of four police officers on the count of manslaughter”, said the public prosecutor of Rennes, Philippe Astruc, confirming information from Ouest-France.
The Rennes prosecutor’s office has requested the indictment of four police officers for manslaughter after the death of a young man in police custody in Saint-Malo in 2019, Agence France-Presse (AFP) learned on Friday evening from the prosecutor.
The prosecution “requested on March 7, 2023 from the investigating magistrate the indictment of four police officers on the count of manslaughter”, informed AFP the public prosecutor of Rennes, Philippe Astruc, confirming information from Ouest -France.
On February 9, 2019, Allan Lambin, 19, died in a cell at the Saint-Malo police station where he had been placed in police custody a few hours earlier.
That evening, the young man and his father were returning to the campsite where they were to meet friends. In the night and in the rain, the young driver misses the entrance to the site and the car ends up in the ditch.
When the police arrived, the young man allegedly uttered insults before being the subject of a “complicated arrest”, according to the Saint-Malo prosecution, then divested in favor of the Rennes prosecution.
Hemorrhage in the chest
At the police station, he was seen at 10:40 p.m. by a doctor. At 12:30 a.m., the doctor noted a medical problem and death was pronounced a little later.
A judicial investigation was opened in February 2019 for manslaughter and failure to assist a person in danger.
The autopsy had revealed a hemorrhage in the chest and death by asphyxiation, according to the family lawyer, Me Hélène Laudic-Baron, specifying that the toxicological report mentioned “0.81 g of alcohol per liter of blood”.
The lawyer filed a complaint for “forgery and use of forgery”. Because, she noted, “the police custody surveillance sheet indicates that Allan was lying on his bench between 10:40 p.m. and 12:30 a.m., while the report from the IGPN (General Inspectorate of the National Police, editor’s note) describing the video surveillance of his cell indicates that he has been lying on the ground since 10:40 p.m., following his discomfort”.
The prosecutor indicated that he did not know “in what time frame the investigating magistrate plans to respond to (his) requisitions”.
