Three police officers sentenced to 15 months in prison after the death of Amadou Koumé in 2015

Published on: 09/20/2022 – 12:35 Justice sentenced, on Tuesday, three police officers to 15 months suspended imprisonment for manslaughter, after the death of Amadou Koumé, during his arrest in a bar in the capital, March 6, 2015. After more than seven years, it is time for judgment in the Amadou Koumé case. The Paris Criminal Court sentenced, Tuesday, September 20, three police officers to 15 months suspended imprisonment for manslaughter, after the death of the father arrested in a bar in the capital, March 6, 2015. 33 years old, that evening in a crisis of dementia, succumbed to “slow mechanical asphyxia”, linked to two strangulation keys and his being kept on the ground for a total of more than six minutes on his stomach, his hands handcuffed in the back. The court sentenced the same sentence to Anthony B., 46, the peacekeeper who committed the strangulation gestures, Sébastien P., 48, at the time a brigadier, who pressed his knee on the lumbar and on the arm of Amadou Koumé, and Major Didier M., 62, higher in rank that evening. his use of force, “certainly legitimate”, but “insufficiently controlled”, as well as for having left Mr. Koumé in a prone position without inquire about his state of health. Sébastien P. showed an “obvious lack of discernment” by not “taking an interest in (his) state of health after a very eventful arrest” and while he did not represented at that time “no longer any danger”, according to the court. Didier M. was guilty of “a succession of negligence and shortcomings” as “responsible for the operation”, present in the bar , during the transport in the van and on arrival at the police station, where the death of Mr. Koumé was recorded. More than seven years after this death, the family, whose complaint with civil action had relaunched the investigations after a classification without further action, had come to hear the decision in court on Thursday morning.”The sentence is relatively lenient””Hearing the word guilty naturally is a satisfaction in such a case, but the sentence is relatively lenient, so there is a bit of justice which is returned”, governed Me Eddy Arneton, their lawyer.”It will not bring back p as Amadou Koumé, nevertheless his family now knows precisely the circumstances in which he died and also knows that his death was due to police officers, so it is a step, and we welcome it as such” , he added. The council of Anthony B. did not wish to speak immediately. The defense, which had pleaded for release during the trial from June 27 to July 4, has ten days to appeal. The prosecutor had requested a one-year suspended prison sentence for the three police officers. A controversial technique, the strangulation key, banned in the gendarmerie and officially replaced in 2021 in the police, is at the heart of several investigations opened after the death. of men arrested. With AFP