‘We want the truth to come out’: Young people from the suburbs of Paris demand justice a year after Nael was killed by police

A year after Nahel Merzouk was killed by police during a “stop” operation from which he was trying to escape, this Saturday several hundred people gathered in the area where the young man grew up and lived to once again demand justice.

On June 27, 2023, at 8:18 am, 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk, of Algerian origin, was forced to stop during Operation Stop in Nanterre, on the outskirts of Paris, from which he was trying to escape, ending up being shot dead by the police.

The incident sparked a wave of protests in the suburbs of Paris and several cities in France that included hundreds of damaged buildings, thousands of burned cars and physical attacks on mayors, leading to the cancellation of several holidays and the mobilization of some 45,000 police officers to contain the unrest.

This Saturday, just over a year later, Naël’s mother organised a silent march in Nanterre, accompanied by several hundred people who held placards reading “The police will kill”, “Let’s abolish the police” and, above all, “Justice for Naël”.

In Lus, 16-year-old Mahmoud said that despite not having met Nahel, he decided to join a silent march organised by his family to “demand justice”, regretting that the agent who killed the young man only spent “two or three months in prison.”

“We are here to say that we want the truth to come out and this agent to be sentenced to life in prison,” said Mahmoud, wearing a white shirt with the words “Justice for Nahel, executed on 06/27/2023.” “.

Florian, the 38-year-old agent who fired the bullet that killed Nael, was held in custody for five months and was finally released from prison in November 2023, and is currently under judicial supervision and prohibited from carrying weapons.

“I came here a year later to show that we are still here, that what happened is very shocking and still worries us very much,” he tells Lusa Sirinne, a member of the Europa Ecology Os Verdes (EELV, acronym in French). ), who came to the march with a sign “the death penalty has been abolished, but we continue to fear for our lives.”

“My younger brothers are victims of police violence every week, and I am always afraid, especially after Nael’s death, that one of them will become the next Nael. So it is very important for us to be here,” says Sirinn.

On the same streets that saw burnt-out cars and broken windows a year earlier, many of these young people now believe the protests have shown the government the power that popular neighborhoods can wield.

“The movement changed the balance of power despite the repression. There were many young people who were detained, which also prevented the movement from expanding, but even so, the movement was much stronger than in 2005,” says Lusa Buna, a member of the United Front of Immigration dos Bairros Populares.

On the eve of the first round of legislative elections – which polls show should give a majority to the National Union (Rassemblement National, in French) – Myriam, 36, believes the movement a year ago had a “big impact” and, given what is to come in France, it will still have a double or triple impact.”

“We are all waiting for the results of the legislative elections and we know that the National Union is at the gates of power and this puts even more pressure on us,” he said.

At the end of the march, in which they heard slogans such as “we are all anti-fascists” and “until there is justice, there is no peace,” Nael’s mother took the microphone to emphasize that her son “was executed.” and demand justice.

“I want the word justice to illuminate my son’s memory.” It’s very difficult for me to realize that two policemen [envolvidos na morte do jovem] somewhere out there, and I could walk down the street and meet them. This is something that is tearing me apart and I only want one thing: justice,” he said.