France says teenagers injured during protests, “характерні для воєнних дій”

This is reported by The Guardian.

The country is in the fourth week of the largest youth protest movement in decades. Hundreds of high schools across the country have been blocked, students are demanding an increase in teachers and repairs to old buildings.

Police have detained an unprecedented number of children, some of whom have reported beatings or racial insults.

Law enforcement officers have launched an internal investigation into 36 allegations of violence by officers against demonstrators. It is noted that four children allegedly “скалічили” explosive weapons, and six children received “значні травми”.

As reported to the Senate by the Minister of internal Affairs Лоран Нуньєс, there are also other complaints about physical assault, insult and sexual violence.

This week, a police officer in the western city of Tours was charged with causing grievous bodily harm. So 16-year-old student of a vocational school named Mael lost his sight in one eye - probably as a result of a rubber bullet. The police deny these accusations.

The family’s lawyer said that Mael did not participate in any violent clashes with the police, but simply stayed at the site of the school protest.

According to the Ministry of Justice, a total of 6773 persons under the age of 18 have been taken into custody since the beginning of school protests in the middle of September.

No charges were filed against 1000.

2190 persons became defendants in court proceedings, and almost 2000 received an alternative “покарання”, such as taking a course in civic education, without bringing the case to court and without sentencing.

• For the last few years, France has been under close scrutiny due to the use of explosives by the police. This issue was especially acute after information about serious injuries sustained by participants of street demonstrations of the “жовтих жилетів” movement (gilets jaunes) in 2018 - 2019. In particular, there were reports of cases of vision loss, as well as hand and leg injuries.