After the death of Quentin Deranque, a 23-year-old student attacked on Thursday on the sidelines of a demonstration in front of Sciences Po Lyon, the prosecution announced that it had collected "several significant testimonies" and was now focusing the investigation on identifying the perpetrators of the violence. The affair sparked a heated political controversy at the national level.

Published on: 02/15/2026 - 10:40 p.m. Modified on: 02/20/2026 - 3:25 p.m.

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The Lyon public prosecutor's office indicated, on Sunday February 15, that it was seeking to identify the "direct perpetrators" of the fatal attack on the young activist Quentin, saying it had been able to collect "several significant testimonies".

“The police services have collected several significant testimonies. The investigation is now focused on the identification of the direct perpetrators of the correctional and criminal violence,” announced the prosecution in a press release. The Lyon prosecutor will hold a press briefing Monday at 3 p.m.

The prosecution had previously indicated that it had opened an investigation into aggravated fatal assault and aggravated violence after the death of student Quentin Deranque, aged 23. This violence is aggravated by the circumstances of the meeting, use of weapons, and concealment of the faces of the perpetrators.

According to the identity collective Némésis, close to the far right, Quentin was attacked Thursday evening by anti-fascist activists, while he was part of the security service responsible for ensuring the security of his activists who were demonstrating against a conference by LFI MEP Rima Hassan at Sciences Po Lyon.

He was taken in early in the evening by emergency services and placed in a coma with a life-threatening prognosis. He died on Saturday.

According to the family's lawyer, Me Fabien Rajon, Quentin was the victim of a "crime", of "a methodically prepared ambush".

A political storm

The affair caused a political storm, notably with strong pressure exerted on La France insoumise, accused of having fueled the “political violence” at the origin of the attack.

“It is clearly the ultra-left who killed” young Quentin, declared Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin. President Emmanuel Macron, after launching a call on Saturday for "calm, restraint and respect", and hoping that "the authors of this ignominy" be condemned, denounced on Sunday the "anti-Semitic expressions" of a party according to him "on the extreme left".

“All the stories that were made in the hours that followed have no relation to reality,” replied the leader of the Insoumis Jean-Luc Mélenchon from Montpellier, who also expressed the “stunnedness”, “empathy” and “compassion” of the Insoumis after the attack on the young man.

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The supposed presence of members of the group claiming to be anti-fascist, the Young Guard - founded by LFI deputy Raphaël Arnault - among its attackers was pointed out in the ranks of the extreme right without the prosecution having established such a link at this stage.

The Young Guard "cannot be held responsible" for the death of Quentin in Lyon, "having suspended all its activities", it assured Sunday in a press release.

Implicated on social networks, Raphaël Arnault's parliamentary assistant, Jacques-Elie Favrot, indicated on Sunday via his lawyer Bertrand Sayn that he "formally denies being responsible for this tragedy". He also declared himself "threatened with death by the extreme right throughout the country and in Europe."

A gathering in front of the Sorbonne

Several dozen people also gathered on Sunday afternoon in front of the Sorbonne University in Paris to demand "justice for Quentin", including elected officials and executives of the National Rally, and far-right personalities, including Marion Maréchal and Éric Zemmour.

Several of the candidates in the Lyon municipal election expressed their emotion at the announcement of the young man's death and indicated that they were suspending their electoral campaign.

“I was towards my house, at the end of the street, I heard screams, people were hitting each other with iron bars, etc. When I came there, I saw people bleeding,” a witness to the attack, who gave his name only as Adem, told AFP on Sunday. “From where I was, if we could hear the screams all the way there, it was because it was really violent,” he added.

An alleged video of the attack broadcast by TF1, filmed from a building, shows around ten people hitting three people lying on the ground, two of whom manage to escape.

At Saint-Georges Church, which the young man attended and where he volunteered for charitable works, rector Laurent Spriet called on Sunday to "pray for the rest of Quentin's soul" and to "let the police and justice do their thing".

With AFP

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