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Paris Opens Judge-Led Probe Into Death of El Hacen Diarra in Police Custody

An inconclusive autopsy plus missing body‑camera footage sharpen questions raised by a neighbor’s video.

Overview

  • Paris prosecutors opened a judicial investigation for intentional violence causing death and tasked the IGPN, with an investigating judge now leading the inquiry.
  • Officials say police stopped Diarra after seeing him roll a cannabis joint, report a taser use and an eyebrow injury, and state he suffered cardiac arrest at the station with death recorded at 12:20 a.m.
  • The family filed a criminal complaint alleging fatal police violence, citing footage that shows officers striking a man on the ground, as roughly a thousand people rallied and MRAP urged precautionary suspensions.
  • The first autopsy did not determine a cause of death, and prosecutors ordered toxicology, anatomopathology and a scan review, with results expected in weeks.
  • No body‑cam images exist because cameras were reportedly uncharged and there is no street CCTV of the arrest, while station video shows Diarra fatigued, urinating, then collapsing as officers attempted resuscitation; prosecutors issued a public call for witnesses.