Paris (France) (AFP) – Three police officers are on trial from Monday before the Paris criminal court for the November 2020 beating of black producer Michel Zecler, whose filmed attack shocked and relaunched the recurring debate on police violence in France.

Published on: 09/11/2026 - 00:36

Aurélien B., Pierre P. and Philippe T., now aged 29, 37 and 50, are accused of willful violence in a meeting and forgery of public documents by a person holding public authority. They face 15 years in prison. A fourth police officer must be tried in criminal court.

The trial before the Paris criminal court, which is due to last two weeks, is awaited with a mixture of "apprehension" and "anger" by Michel Zecler. Six years after the events, the 47-year-old music producer hopes that his attackers will be “judged up to their actions”.

On November 21, 2020, while France, in the midst of the Covid health crisis, was experiencing its second national confinement, Michel Zecler was arrested by a police patrol in front of his Parisian music studio for not wearing a mask and suspicion of cannabis consumption.

Pushed by the police inside the narrow airlock of the entrance to his premises, the producer then suffered a very violent beating, recorded by the studio's surveillance camera.

“An avalanche of blows”, as the investigation writes. Between 7:42 p.m. and 7:47 p.m., the producer was hit around thirty times in the face and all over his body with punches and batons.

The medical expertise will note a craniofacial trauma, a wound to the lip and scalp, a complete rupture of the biceps tendon, justifying a total interruption of work (ITT) of 45 days.

Revealed by the Loopsider site six days after the events, the video surveillance images created a shock - President Emmanuel Macron spoke of "shame" - and invalidated the police officers' version. Their arrest report indicated that the producer had hit them and tried to grab their baton.

Insult

“If there had not been cameras... their reports would have been enough to send me to prison, and for a long time,” laments Michel Zecler, who remains very marked by his attack and still wonders today about “the ease” with which he was attacked.

“I don’t understand this hatred,” the producer, who regularly attends trials involving police officers and says he is “frightened” by the “images of violence” during the latest demonstrations in France, told AFP.

The case had relaunched the debate on violence and racism in the police, considered systemic by victims and researchers, but relating to isolated acts according to the institution and police unions.

The police officers were suspended. Two of them were imprisoned for a month. Although they admitted during the investigation that their report did not correspond to the reality of the facts, they say they were afraid for their lives and denied any racist dimension.

Michel Zecler claims that he was treated as a “dirty nigger” during his beating. The courts, without calling into question its sincerity, however considered that they did not have sufficient evidence to uphold the qualification of racism.

“I was insulted. And I will say it again to the audience,” assures the producer.

The attack in November 2020 turned his life upside down.

“It shook up a lot of things, physically, morally, economically too,” underlines Mr. Zecler, who is still being monitored psychologically and whose physical pain “reawakens, especially at this time of year, because it sadly reminds me of what I experienced.”

Asked by AFP, the police officers' lawyers did not wish to comment.

© 2026 AFP

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