Death of Nahel: the Versailles Court of Appeal rules out the murder charge

The Versailles Court of Appeal handed down its decision on Thursday 5 March 2026. Police officer Florian M., who fired the shot that killed Nahel Merzouk, 17, on 27 June 2023 in Nanterre, will stand trial for “violence resulting in death without intent to kill”. The Court of Appeal thus sided with the officer’s lawyers, who had challenged the investigating judges’ June 2025 order sending him to stand trial for murder before an assize court.

The court found it was not established that Florian M., at the moment he fired, intended to take the driver’s life. It also held that he may have believed the car, as it pulled away, could endanger the safety of others or his own.

This reclassification has major judicial consequences. The officer will now be tried before a departmental criminal court (cour criminelle départementale), made up solely of professional judges with no jury, and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison – against 30 years for murder before an assize court with a jury.

The family’s lawyer, Margot Pugliese, expressed her dismay at the decision, stressing that the investigating judges had given solid grounds for finding that the officer intended to kill, pointing in particular to a point-blank shot to the teenager’s chest. The dismissal of the case (non-lieu) against the second officer present at the scene was also upheld.

In 2024, in partnership with Blast, Index published an in-depth investigation into the killing of Nahel Merzouk, drawing on audiovisual analysis and a digital 3D reconstruction of the events.