France: Officers Expected to Face Trial in Teen Deaths That Spurred Riots

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/world/europe/france-officers-to-face-trial-in-teen-deaths.html

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Police officers implicated in the accidental deaths of two teenagers in 2005, which set off a wave of rioting, are expected to stand trial after a ruling on Wednesday by France’s highest court. The court overturned a 2011 decision that dismissed charges of “failure to assist a person in danger” against a patrolman and dispatcher. Zyed Benna, 17, and Bouna Traoré, 15, were electrocuted while hiding from the police on a state electrical site in Clichy-sous-Bois, a poor suburb of Paris. In similar neighborhoods across the country, their deaths were viewed as a symbol of police misconduct. In its decision Wednesday, the court noted that the patrolman did not try to warn the boys of the danger of the site and that both he and the dispatcher had failed to alert the utility to the boys’ presence.