Corsican supporter blinded: two years in prison with suspended sentence required against the police officer

"Not to condemn" this former BAC, tried for having "voluntarily committed violence" would be "quite simply illegal, but to condemn him too heavily would simply be iniquitous", launched at the Assize Court of Reims the lawyer General Matthieu Bourrette.

He asks the jurors to say that the policeman "has committed a crime, but, by the choice of the sanction, that he is not a criminal", and to pronounce a sentence "meaningful for all, but infamous for no one" .

"This trial is about the work of the police, it is not the questioning of the police. Police bashing is an all too common collective game", he points out, judging that the evening of the facts, the police "demonstrated composure and professionalism".

But it is not "the trial of Corsican hooliganism either", adds the magistrate, after police testimonies having highlighted "the hostility" of the group of ultras from Bastia to which the victim, Maxime Beux, 22 years old, belonged. the time.

"Was he a liar, was he a leader, he remains a wounded man, a victim", underlines the prosecutor. Hit as he fled, "he was not dangerous".

The policeman, 50, now in service in a police station in Reims, faces 15 years of criminal imprisonment.

On February 13, 2016, during scuffles in the city center of Reims after the match won by SC Bastia, he used his telescopic baton against Maxime Beux, causing the irreversible functional loss of his left eye.

At the helm, he rejected any idea of ​​"voluntary violence", believing that he had acted proportionately and obeying orders. "I regret what happened (...) I did not want to destroy his life in any way," he said on Thursday, apologizing.

That evening, as tensions rose between police and supporters in the city center, Maxime Beux kicked the defendant's car, targeted shortly before by a projectile shot. The accused then sets off in pursuit, hitting him after a few seconds.

Despite his bleeding wound, Maxime Beux will be handcuffed, placed in police custody, and taken care of by the emergency services only 1:10 after the blow. It is "the only thing that is unbearable, but it is significant", lambasted Mr. Bourrette.

- "Shameless lie" -

In police custody, the policeman first claims that the young man was injured by falling on a pole, a version supported for two years by the authorities, and finally excluded by the experts.

The baton inflicted "aimed for the shoulder", "in order to arrest him", assured the accused in court this week. For him, "it was inconceivable that it would end up in the eye".

"This file starts from an initial, shameless lie" of a policeman "covered for too long by his hierarchy", and who "denies the evidence", pleaded Friday for Maxime Beux Me Benjamin Genuini.

Since the opening of the trial on Tuesday, police and supporters have passed responsibility for the scuffles.

The former pointed to racist insults, anti-French and anti-police songs, as well as hateful tags scribbled in the toilets, including one proclaiming: "we killed your prefect".

For Maxime Beux, the police "wanted to be the Bastiais" and harassed his group as he rallied the city center for a drink.

At the time studying management at Corte, he was banned from the stadium in 2014 for throwing a bottle at a CRS. He will be again in 2017. for having participated in a descent of Bastia supporters on the lawn during a match with Lyon.

The verdict is expected at the end of the day.