The organizers denounce “impediments” to the intervention of relief by the police. A source close to the gendarmes assures BFMTV that they “totally deny” these accusations.
While one of the participants in the demonstration against the construction site of the mega-basins in Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres) is still this Monday morning between life and death, the organizers accuse the police of having knowingly delayed the arrival of help to take care of the victim and to be at the origin of the clashes. Charges denied by the police.
The Human Rights League, which had mandated 22 members of several observatories of public freedoms and police practices on the spot, denounced “an immoderate and indiscriminate use of force on all those present on the scene” and “massive and indiscriminate tear gas fire”, even “before the arrival of the demonstrators on the site”.
“Contrary to the version of the prefecture, there was immediately a violent reaction on the part of the gendarmes”, relates Patrick Baudoin, president of the League of Human Rights on BFMTV.
The LDH also claims to have noted “several cases of obstacles by the police to the intervention of relief”, including one in an area “totally calm for several tens of minutes”.
“It was a perfectly calm and accessible area”, abounds Patrick Baudoin.
A time period of 1h40
Accusations shared by the organizers of the demonstration, such as the movement The Uprisings of the Earth which deplores more than 200 injured, against seven according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior, and points to the government as “doubly at fault” of the state criticism of the protester still in a coma.
The 30-year-old man suffered a head trauma after being hit by a projectile, the nature or origin of which is not yet known, BFMTV learned from a source close to the investigation.
“Between the time when (the victim) was injured (1.30 p.m.) and the time when the ambulance arrived (3.10 p.m.), 1 hour 40 minutes elapsed. The Samu helicopter took off at 5.10 p.m., i.e. 3.40 hours later” ensures the movement The Uprisings of the Earth on Twitter.
And if the relief could not intervene earlier, it is because they have, according to them, been “obstructed by the police”.
The authorities reject any hindrance
For their part, the police “totally reject” this version of the facts. “As soon as they knew there was an injured person, they hired their gendarmerie doctor with a nurse under fire from the black bloc” assures a source close to the gendarmerie at BFMTV.
“They totally reject the thesis that they deliberately delayed the arrival of help,” she continues.
Same story on the side of the Deux-Sèvres prefecture, which declared to BFMTV that “the emergency services intervened in extremely difficult conditions and this, while the clashes had not ceased and that the police continued to be attacked”.
“They were hampered in their progress by the clashes which continued closer to the reserve of substitution”, she continues.
An investigation has been opened “to determine the exact nature” of the serious injuries of three demonstrators in total and “the circumstances in which” these people were injured, the Niort prosecutor’s office announced in a press release on Sunday.
Other investigations have been opened, in particular for “organization of a prohibited demonstration”, “violence against soldiers” and “destruction of property”. 45 gendarmes filed a complaint after injuries.
