France to rule on man’s death in custody

FRANCE'’S top court was to rule yesterday on the dismissal of an investigation into the 2016 death of a young black man in police custody that sparked protests.

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A person holds a portrait of late Adama Traore during a march calling for answers two years after the 24-year-old man died in police custody in 2018 in Paris, France.

(AFP)

The Court of Cassation’s decision comes nearly a decade after the death of 24-year-old Adama Traore following his arrest in the Paris suburb of Beaumont-sur-Oise, a fatality that triggered national outcry over police brutality and racism.

Traore’s family is contesting a 2024 appeal court ruling confirming a prior decision to drop the case, after an investigation led to no charges against the military policemen — or gendarmes - involved and therefore no case in court.

Three gendarmes pursued the young man on July 19, 2016, when temperatures reached nearly 37°C, pinning him down in an apartment, after which he told officers he was “having trouble breathing”.