The French police detained 3,625 people participating in riots that broke out in France last week in the last six days, French media reported Tuesday, citing the Ministry of Justice.
Earlier in the day, French President Emmanuel Macron said the peak of the riots has passed. Macron said that the authorities could shut down social networks if the situation in the country deteriorates. Last Friday, he said that the French authorities would identify those who called for protests through social media in light of the ongoing unrest triggered by the killing of a teenager.
The BFMTV broadcaster reported that a total of 3,625 people were detained in six days of riots, including 1,124 minors. Some 990 charges have been brought to courts, 480 of which have been reviewed immediately in an expedited procedure.
At the moment, 380 have been sentenced to prison terms, according to the report.
La Marseillaise newspaper reported that the prosecutor’s office in the French city of Marseille had launched a preliminary investigation into a death of a 27-year-old male after he was shot from a traumatic firearm on Saturday night.
Initial results of the investigation indicated that the probable cause of the death was “a severe blow to the chest from a non-lethal ‘flash-ball,'” but the location where the person was wounded has not been determined.
“There were riots and looting in the area that night, but it is impossible to determine whether the deceased took part in it or even whether he could have been in such a place,” the media quoted a prosecutor’s office’s spokesperson as saying.
France has been gripped by unrest since June 27, when a 17-year-old boy was shot dead by a police officer for failing to stop his car when ordered to do so in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris. The officer who pulled the trigger on Nahel M. has been taken into custody for voluntary manslaughter, but that has not deterred the protesters.
