The three French police officers who were convicted of “voluntary violence” toward youth worker Théodore Luhaka back in 2017 have all received suspended prison sentences. Luhaka sustained unspeakably horrific injuries during the failed identity check, including ones to his rectum after being assaulted with a police baton.
The victim—a African youth worker who was just 22 years old at the time—filed a lawsuit that stated the officers brutally assaulted him during an identity check in February 2017 in Aulnay-sous-Bois, a suburb northeast of Paris known for its sizable immigrant population.
The incident led to several days of protests and prompted François Hollande, the president of France at the time—to visit Luhaka in the hospital. Then-presidential hopeful Emmanuel Macron recognized the injustice and vowed to create a police force that would do their best to help instead of harm local communities.
The officer who used the baton on Luhaka, Marc-Antoine Castelain, received a suspended sentence of 12 months. The other two officers present— Jeremie Dulin and Tony Hochart—hit Luhaka during the incident and received three months respectively.
Prosecutor Loic Pageot requested three-year suspended prison sentence for Castelain and judged Luhaka’s injury to be a permanent disability. In addition, he asked for six months and three months suspended prison sentences for the other two officers.
Even though Luhaka suffered a four-inch gash to his large intestine, the judge ruled that the injury could not be considered a permanent disability. However, medical documents from 2019 stated that he would need lifelong treatment for his injuries.
“We need a police that protects us, not police officers like these who employ gratuitous violence,” he stated in court last week. Luhaka’s attorney, Antoine Vey, stated to the press: “It’s a decision ... that we take as a victory.” He also recognized that “Theo was a victim and nothing justifies that he was beaten.” Luhaka did not talk but said he would feel relieved in the cops were convicted.
Despite the conviction, Luhaka has not received justice. What he experienced was traumatic and inexplicably inhumane violence for being Black—something that police have normalized on a international scale.