A French court finds three police officers guilty of manslaughter over the death of a Black man in Paris in 2015 and sentences each to a 15-month suspended jail term
The prosecutor had sought a one-year suspended sentence, deeming that necessary and proportionate force had been used to immobilise Koume but that the officers were negligent in leaving him on his front.
"To hear the word 'guilty' is satisfying, but the sentence is relatively lenient," Eddy Arneton, a lawyer for the Koume family, told reporters afterwards on Tuesday. The prosecutor had sought a one-year suspended sentence, deeming that necessary and proportionate force had been used to immobilise Koume but that the officers were negligent in leaving him on his front.Rights groups say accusations of brutal, racist treatment of residents of often immigrant background by French police remain largely unaddressed, in particular in deprived city suburbs.