🇫🇷🇩🇿 A young French police officer has been rotting in prison for 15 months after shooting an Algerian migrant who broke into his grandmother’s garage.

The officer’s lawyer indicates that the officer, Éric G., is being persecuted by the courts because he is a White man who shot an Algerian.

“Basically, it was a blond man with blue eyes who shot an Algerian,” said attorney Laurent-Franck Lienard.

Remarkably, the case has not even gone to trial, well over a year after the incident. Officer Éric G. has had his request to be released while in pre-trial detention denied a total of SEVEN times, but there may be racist motivations behind efforts to keep him in prison.

The court claims Éric G.’ might "reoffend." His lawyer vehemently denies this.

“The main argument [for continued detention] is the risk of recurrence. As if he were going to find himself tomorrow morning in his grandmother’s garden with his service weapon, in front of another squatter. It makes no sense,”

On June 29, 2024, Éric G.'s grandmother heard suspicious noises in her garage in Bobigny outside Paris. The 26-year-old off-duty officer took his service weapon and investigated. Inside, he confronted the Algerian in his 94-year-old grandmother's garage.

The officer said a struggle ensued and he fired in self-defense after the man came after him with an object, which turned out to be a caulking gun.

The attorney for the Algerian man, Amar Slimani, said that continued detention "is the least we can do." The attorney, Yassine Bouzrou, says the officer is lying and did not really fear for his life.

Éric G.’s, Michelle, expressed her despair about his long-term detention.

“Why don’t they let him go out with an electronic bracelet? Why are they treating him as if he were the worst serial killer?”

She added: “My son shot to avoid dying, not to kill! What’s the point of persecuting him like this?”

Éric G.’s mother further confirmed her son is struggling in prison. In French prisons, police officers are targets and must be kept in extreme isolation.

“He has dark thoughts, it breaks my heart. He told me that if we weren’t there, he would have hanged himself already,” said the mother.

Éric G.’s grandmother died a few months ago, but the family never told her that her grandson was imprisoned to protect her.

🔗 Remix News