French court overturns Clichy-sous-Bois verdict

It is seven years almost to the day after the death of Zyed Benna and Bouna Traoré in an electrical transformer, on 27 October 27, 2005. Their death was followed by three weeks of riots in the French suburbs, with a record of 10,000 vehicles and 300 buildings on fire, police and rioters injured 130, an unprecedented event,reports Le Figaro.

A police spokesman quoted by Le Figaro criticised the decision and said it risked opening old wounds and a legal expert said the ruling would create considerable legal  uncertainty for police officers in the same situation.

Last year, a lower court dropped a "failure to help" case against the officers for lack of concrete evidence.The case will now go to the appeals court in the French city of Rennes.For seven years the teenagers' families and local support groups have campaigned to have the policemen put on trial.A year after the deaths, an internal police report confirmed that the teenagers had been chased by police before they entered the sub-station.
 
"At no point... did the police attempt to warn the children of the risk," the lawyer forthe families said, according to France's Le Parisien newspaper.