Police officer charged in France after teen loses several teeth to tear gas grenade

• - A French police officer was charged after firing a tear gas grenade at close range at 14-year-old Eden during high school protests near Paris.
• - Eden lost several teeth and suffered a fractured jaw. His mother said he cannot speak and eats through a straw.
• - The prosecutor said self-defence did not apply because the force was not proportionate. The officer is banned from work and could face up to 15 years in prison.

PARIS - A French policeman was charged on Oct 6 with violence for last week firing a tear gas grenade at close range at a 14-year-old student during high school protests that have shaken the country, a prosecutor said.

The boy, named as Eden, lost most of his teeth and was wounded in the face in the incident on Oct 5 in Saint-Ouen-l’Aumone, north-west of Paris.

The policeman had not been remanded in custody but was placed under judicial control and banned from working until further notice, the local prosecutor said.

In videos of the incident widely shared on social media, three helmeted police officers are seen facing the high school student.

One of them struck the teenager, who kicked him back, before the grenade round fired at his face knocked him to the ground.

Detained for questioning on Oct 5, the officer said he used the weapon in response to the schoolboy’s “resistance”, according to the Pontoise prosecutor, Guirec Le Bras.

But he said, “the conditions for self-defence have not been met” due to “the lack of proportionality” in firing the grenade.

The offence in question can be punishable by up to 15 years in prison, he said.

The teenager lost several teeth and suffered a fractured jaw that required surgery, the prosecutor’s office said.

“His jaw is sealed shut, he can no longer speak and he eats through a straw,” his mother told media on Oct 5, adding all his upper teeth were broken and “his lower teeth torn out”.

Police have used tear gas and other means to try to control what the authorities have described as “urban violence” during the protests.

Unions, rights groups and many of the children have accused the police of using disproportionate force. AFP