Police violence: three trials open on 9 November in Paris and Nanterre

All three cases date back to 2020 and were all brought to public attention by footage. The hearings are open to the public; the venue and times for each are given below.

On 16 July 2020, Kéziah Nuissier was arrested by gendarmes outside the Fort-de-France police station, in Martinique, during a rally in support of anti-chlordecone activists. He came away with injuries to his skull and eye, after violence documented in the videos of the scene, over which he filed a complaint for acts of torture and barbarity. That complaint has not led to a single investigative step, according to his lawyers. It is the case opened on the complaint of two gendarmes and a police officer that is now coming to court: he is prosecuted for resisting arrest (rébellion) and wilful violence against persons holding public authority, and faces up to three years in prison. Moved out of Martinique, the trial has already been postponed four times, most recently on 1 December 2025, for lack of sufficient hearing time.

The hearing takes place on 9 and 10 November from 1.30 pm, before the 10th criminal chamber at the Paris courthouse: parvis du Tribunal de Paris, Paris 17th arrondissement (metro lines 13 and 14, RER C and tram T3b, Porte de Clichy station). The court may deliver its decision at the close of proceedings or reserve judgment.

During the night of 16 to 17 October 2020, Olivio Gomes, 28, was shot dead with three bullets by an officer of the Paris night BAC (anti-crime brigade) outside his home in Poissy (Yvelines). The crew had followed his car for around twenty kilometres, outside its area of jurisdiction. On 27 March 2026, the Yvelines assize court rejected the self-defence claimed by the officer, Gilles Guilbert, and sentenced him to ten years in prison for murder. He appealed. On 19 May, the investigating chamber of the Versailles court of appeal released him against the prosecution’s opinion: he therefore appears free before a new assize court, which will retry the whole case.

The trial opens on Monday 9 November at 2 pm, according to the family’s statement, and runs until 18 November before the Hauts-de-Seine assize court, at the Nanterre courthouse: 179-191 avenue Joliot-Curie, Nanterre (RER A, Nanterre-Préfecture station).

On 21 November 2020, music producer Michel Zecler was beaten for several minutes by three police officers at the entrance to his studio, in Paris’s 17th arrondissement, after a check for not wearing a mask. The officers’ report claimed he had struck them; the studio’s CCTV footage contradicts it, and the investigation opened against him after 48 hours in police custody was dropped.

The three officers are prosecuted for joint wilful violence and forgery of a public record (faux en écriture publique) by persons holding public authority, and face up to fifteen years in prison. The violence is a misdemeanour; forgery of a public record, however, is a felony when committed by a person holding public authority. This is why the three officers are being tried by the Paris departmental criminal court (cour criminelle départementale), made up of five professional judges, without a jury.

Michel Zecler says he was called “sale nègre”, a racist slur, which the officers deny; the investigating judges did not uphold the racist nature of the violence, which the prosecution had asked them to retain. A fourth officer, prosecuted for throwing a tear-gas grenade into the studio, will be tried separately by the criminal court. On the disciplinary side, the Defender of Rights had found in November 2025 that no proceedings had been initiated five years after the events, and called for disciplinary proceedings to be opened.

The trial opens on Monday 9 November at 9.30 am, in the Rivero courtroom, before the Paris departmental criminal court, and runs until 20 November, at the Île de la Cité courthouse: 4 boulevard du Palais, Paris 1st arrondissement (metro line 4, Cité station).

These three hearings are part of a series of police violence trials taking place at the end of 2026. On 26 October, the trial of three officers charged with involuntary manslaughter over the death of Cédric Chouviat opened before the Paris criminal court, before being postponed to June. The appeal trial of the two officers convicted over the shots that seriously wounded Nordine A. and Merryl B. in Stains in 2021, postponed on 24 September, will be held on 20 and 27 November before the Paris court of appeal. From 17 to 20 November, the Seine-Saint-Denis departmental criminal court is due to try the BAC officer who killed Jean-Paul Benjamin, 33, with a bullet fired into his vehicle in Aulnay-sous-Bois in March 2022. He is prosecuted for wilful violence resulting in death without intent to kill; the investigating judges rejected the self-defence he claimed. On 24 November, the investigating chamber of the Versailles court of appeal is due to rule once again on the charges against the officer who killed Nahel Merzouk, after the Court of Cassation overturned the ruling that had ruled out murder.