A-Infos (en) France, OCL: IMPUNITY HAS NO LIMITS NOW - Press release from Bassines Non Merci (No Thanks to Reservoirs) by Saint-Nazaire (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

After injuring more than 200 people fighting for water sharing in Ste 
Soline on March 25, 2023;
After blocking the arrival of emergency services attempting to evacuate 
people whose lives were in danger;
After a complaint was filed for obstruction of emergency services and 
attempted homicide;
After dozens of injured people contacted the Defender of Rights;
After two years of a dragging, recalcitrant, incomplete, and biased 
investigation;
After the damning release of videos of officers boasting about illegal 
shootings, insulting protesters, and reveling in the thrill of injuring, 
maiming, and hoping to kill;
After the outrage, the increasingly laborious demands for 
investigations, the start of an administrative inquiry, and the slim 
hope that light will be shed on a law enforcement operation that kills, 
maims, and revels in it;

After injuring more than 200 people fighting for water sharing in Ste 
Soline on March 25, 2023;

After blocking the arrival of emergency services attempting to evacuate 
people whose lives were in danger;

After a complaint was filed for obstruction of emergency services and 
attempted homicide;

After dozens of injured people appealed to the Defender of Rights;

After two years of a dragging, recalcitrant, incomplete, and biased 
investigation;

After the damning release of videos of officers boasting about illegal 
shootings, insulting protesters, and reveling in the thrill of injuring 
and maiming, hoping to kill;

After the outrage, the increasingly insistent demands for 
investigations, the start of an administrative inquiry, and the slim 
hope that light might be shed on a law enforcement operation that kills, 
maims, and even revels in it;

The Rennes prosecutor has decided to dismiss the complaints of Mika, 
Serge, Olivier, and Alix, burying an investigation that had barely 
begun, refusing requests for answers, blocking all attempts at justice, 
avoiding the inspection of a flawed chain of command, and intends to 
close the book on the events at Sainte-Soline.

This decision by the prosecutor is all the more shocking given that the 
judicial missteps in this case have been widely criticized since the 
publication of videos by Mediapart and Libération showing footage 
captured by police body cameras, with officers boasting about the 
activists' injuries and urging each other to carry out illegal 
shootings. The journalists' investigative work clearly demonstrated how 
the IGGN (General Inspectorate of the National Gendarmerie) inquiry was 
designed to cover up the responsibility of officers in the orders they 
gave, as well as in the mistakes made by their subordinates.

Regarding the direct fire, an administrative inquiry was opened. It is 
in this context that the prosecutor's statement, acknowledging the 
firing, falls, yet failing to connect it to the mutilations described in 
the complaint.

This dismissal is typical of numerous IGGN investigations, of many 
injured people left without answers, all in an effort to avoid, once 
again, a damning truth. In the Sainte-Soline case, the bias towards a 
form of policing designed to terrorize the demonstrators, even at the 
risk of seriously injuring them, stemmed from decisions made at the 
highest levels of the State, specifically by the then Minister of the 
Interior, Mr. Darmanin. Ultimately, it is he whom the shortcomings of 
the investigation also seek to protect.

We see the hand of the same Darmanin in the prosecutor's decision, 
acting as both judge and party, since he is now Minister of Justice and, 
as such, the highest-ranking prosecutor, and simultaneously, potentially 
implicated in the policing strategy at Sainte-Soline, in his capacity as 
Minister of the Interior.

We reject this imposed passivity. The injured comrades will file a 
complaint with the investigating judge, becoming civil parties to the 
case, in an attempt to circumvent the obstruction erected by the prosecutor.

We refuse this impunity, this silence, and this forgetting. We call for 
renewed expressions of solidarity wherever possible in support of those 
who have been injured, and for voices to be raised in protest against 
this grotesque and despicable attempt to cover up police state violence.

P.S.
On the BNM website, the article includes numerous links that support the 
claims...

Title: Attached documents
BNM Press Release Following the Dismissal of Complaints in Sainte-Soline 
(PDF - 108.3 KB)

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4580
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