A video shot after a police check on a disabled person at the Gare de Lyon shocked Internet users. The Defender of Rights was seized.
The video caused a stir on social media, where it has been viewed millions of times. It shows a disabled man with an amputated arm and both shins, leaning against a station pillar. The scene was filmed on the RER D platform, at the Gare de Lyon, after a police check. The three agents can be seen leaving, leaving François Bayga stranded with his things, including his prostheses, scattered on the ground around him.
According to this man’s version, the police would have pinned him against the wall, removed his cane and tried to feel him, when he had just responded to the officers’ request by presenting his phone, his medical aid card. ‘State (AME) and its wheelchair rugby club registration card.
“These are prostheses”
“They asked me where I got my phone, accusing me of stealing it. I started to get angry, explains François Bayga. I was pressed against the wall and while I was struggling, one of the policemen pulled my leg (…) I told them several times “These are prostheses “. They insisted on searching me. I then removed everything ”.
The viral video was filmed by a passenger outraged by the conditions of this identity check. He calls out to the three police officers to encourage them to help the disabled man to get up, in vain.
The Defender of Rights seized
The defender of rights was seized. This Wednesday, he indicated that he would begin the investigation of the case, using in particular the CCTV images of the station.
According to a police source quoted by AFP, “this disabled person was urinating on the platform” when she was checked. After being fined, the man “made a scandal and of himself he threw his prostheses to round up the crowd”. “These facts were confirmed by the video” of the RATP, this source further affirms.
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