Death of Jeremie Cohen: two young men indicted and imprisoned

The public prosecutor of Bobigny, Eric Mathais, April 1, 2022. THOMAS SAMSON / AFP Two young men were indicted and imprisoned after the death of Jeremie Cohen, this Jewish man who was fatally hit in February by a tram after to have been struck, announced, Friday April 15, the parquet floor of Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis). The suspects, aged 27 and 23, were charged with “willful violence in a meeting” for one and “willful violence resulting in death without intention to give it” for the second, said the prosecutor of the Republic of Bobigny, Eric Mathais. The two men had presented themselves spontaneously to the police on Tuesday and had been taken into custody. The statements of the two suspects before the investigators, in particular on the “chronology of events”, suggest that “the violence would be linked to the behavior of the victim, to which they would have reacted by hitting him”, specified the prosecution. , without giving further details. At this stage of the investigations, “there is still no objective element to characterize a discriminatory motive, in particular anti-Semitic, at the origin of the violence”, said Mr. Mathais. On Wednesday, February 16, shortly after 8 p.m., Jeremie Cohen was crossing the tracks when he was hit by tram 1 in Bobigny. A few seconds before the tragedy, he had been beaten by young people. Victim of cardio-respiratory arrest and head trauma, he died shortly after midnight in hospital. Read also: Death of Jeremie Cohen: what we know about the second ongoing investigation Jeremie Cohen suffered from an invisible disability A first investigation had been opened to determine the circumstances of the death. “The hypothesis that the victim crossed the tram tracks to escape his attackers was naturally taken into account,” said the public prosecutor, in a press release, on April 4. On March 29, a judicial investigation was opened on the grounds of “intentional violence in a meeting resulting in death without the intention of giving it”, continued the prosecutor. According to his family, interviewed by Radio Shalom, Jeremie Cohen suffered from an invisible disability. His two brothers towed at the scene and collected a video showing some of the drama, widely shared on social media on Monday. According to a police source, a video, confirming the hypothesis of an altercation between the victim and several individuals, was received on March 10 by the investigators. The investigation was entrusted to the judicial police of the department. Read also: Death of Jeremie Cohen in Bobigny: from Eric Zemmour to Emmanuel Macron, the presidential candidates react to the drama Le Monde with AFP