Man allegedly sodomized by French police sparks protests in Paris

A French police officer who was charged with allegedly sodomizing a man with a baton during a check for his identity papers has sparked protests in Paris.

Incident with French police

Three other officers were charged with assault in connection with the incident on Thursday, the country’s Ministry of Interior announced.

French officers on Thursday now say the incident was by accident and that the incident does not constitute rape.

Alleged victim

The 22-year-old identified as ” Théo”, says a group of four police officers physically and sexually assaulted him on Feb. 2. He says he confronted the officers after seeing one of them slap a young person during an identity check. Then, Théo says, the officers took him around the corner and sodomized him with a truncheon, spit on him, beat his genitals and called him names, including “negro” and “b*tch.”

Théo suffered severe anal and facial injuries during the incident, parts of which were captured on video. He was immediately taken to the hospital for an emergency surgery.

Police have claimed Théo’s pants “slipped down on their own” and his wounds were sustained accidentally, according to French media reports. An early investigation by France’s national police force concluded that the incident, while “very serious,” was “not a rape” due to the “unintentional character” of the officers’ actions.

French police: video

Video shows an officer “applying a truncheon blow horizontally across [Théo’s] buttocks,” a police source told The Local. While investigators acknowledge that Théo was penetrated, they say it was unintended.

Since the incident, huge protests have emerged in Paris against racism and police brutality. Cars were lit on fire as well.

Théo and his family are urging the community to act peacefully.

“I would like to ask the residents of my neighborhood to calm down. I ask them to stop the hostilities because I love my city, and I want to find it the way I left it,” Théo told the French news station BFMTV from his hospital bed this week. “Violence is not the way to support me. Justice will do its job.”