Europe's top rights court is investigating France for alleged "torture" and "inhumane and degrading treatment" after a French union activist lost an eye at a protest in 2016, his lawyers and the court have said.
Issued on: 05/12/2023 -
Protestors wearing yellow vests ("gilets jaunes"), clash with French riot police during a demonstration against rising costs of living they blame on high taxes in Mondeville near Caen, northwestern France, on December 8, 2018.
© CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP
By: RFI
Laurent Theron, then aged 46, lost the use of his right eye after being struck by a rubber-ball grenade shot by police during a demonstration against labour reforms on 15 September 2016.
His lawyers argued the policeman who fired it was not under any threat at the time, but a French court acquitted the officer last year for having acted in "legitimate defence".
"After a seven-year legal battle, the Theron case has taken an unprecedented turn with the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) launching legal proceedings against the French state," his lawyers Celine Moreau, Olivier Peter and Lucie Simon said in a statement on Monday.
Significant legal repercussions
Their petition to the ECHR invoked article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits "torture" and "inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment", according to another statement from the court.
Theron's lawyers said the proceedings could have significant repercussions in other cases of injured protesters in France, including during the 2018-2019 "Yellow Vest" movement against President Emmanuel Macron's policies during his first term.'Macron forced me to become more political': a tale of two Yellow Vests
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The case "raises vital questions on the responsibility of the French state in the protection of protesters' rights, especially with regards to excessive use of force", they said.
The Yellow Vest protests left 2,500 demonstrators injured in a year, 23 of whom lost an eye. Around 1,800 officers were also injured.
(with AFP)
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