“I'm happy to put the truth back in place. I never lied in this story and I'm very happy to hear that they were punished,” the 29-year-old told the 24-hour news channel, his first reaction to the trial's epilogue.
After a two-week trial, the Seine-Saint-Denis Assize Court on Friday evening sentenced three police officers to a suspended prison sentence of between 3 and 12 months, which occurred on February 2, 2017 in the town of 3,000 Aulnay-sous-. Boise is a case that has become emblematic of police brutality.
One of the many acts of violence deemed unjustified by the courts was a blow with a cane the young man received near the anus. It ruptured his sphincter (anal muscle) with a ten-centimeter-deep wound. Despite two surgeries, she now suffers from incontinence.
“My focus was more on them being guilty of what they did. And then, everything that involves legal punishments is not my area,” said Theo Luhaga on BFMTV with his lawyer Antoine Way. “Had a 'normal' person done this, the results would not have been the same. To me these are not police officers. So, we should have condemned them like common people,” he adds. A BFMTV reporter asked, “Do you think they were given priority because they were police officers?” Theo replies: “Of course.” Before adding “That's the way it is, we have no choice.”
In its ruling, consulted by AFP, the Assize Court held that the victim did not suffer from “permanent disability” because her “organic lesions” did not cause “irreparable loss” of her organ. So he indicted Marc-Antoine Castelaine, the author of the caning, on a less violent charge that led to a 60-day ITT, meaning not a felony.
Various parties welcomed the nuanced verdict at the end of the trial. Theo Luhaga's lawyer described it as a “pacifying decision”, while police officer Marc-Antoine Castline's lawyer expressed his “great relief”.
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