Demonstrators have taken to the streets in and around Paris to protest the alleged beating and rape of a black man by French police.
The unrest has gone on nearly a week, and “rioters have clashed with police and have set fire to trash cans, cars and a nursery school,” reported Jake Cigainero for NPR’s Newscast unit.
Four police officers have been suspended and charged in connection with the incident, according to a statement by the French Interior Ministry. Three face assault charges and one faces a charge of rape.
The victim, referred to by officials as “Theo,” gave the BBC a graphic account of what he says happened to him.
The BBC reported Theo said he left his house last Thursday evening and found himself in the middle of a police operation targeting drug dealers:
“Theo said he was sodomized with a truncheon, as well as racially abused, spat at and beaten around his genitals,” the broadcaster reported. “He has undergone emergency surgery for severe anal injuries, and has been declared unfit for work for 60 days.
” ‘I fell on to my stomach, I had no strength left,’ he said.
“He was then sprayed with tear gas around the head and in the mouth and hit over the head.”
On Tuesday, French President Francois Hollande visited Theo in the hospital, and later praising his dignity in a tweet, which included a photo of Hollande by his bedside.
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