French police officer should stand trial for murder of teenager, prosecutors say

PARIS (Reuters) - Prosecutors have requested that a French police officer stands trial for murder after the deadly shooting of a teenager in 2023 that sparked violent protests across the country, the Nanterre prosecutor's office said on Tuesday.

In a statement, prosecutors said they had concluded their investigation into the shooting of 17-year-old Nahel M. by a police officer on June 27, 2023 in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, an incident over which two officers were investigated.

They requested that one of the officers faces a court trial.

It is now up to a judge to decide whether a trial will take place. Murder complicity charges against the other officer were dropped.

The police officer who was charged with murder fired at Nahel after the latter failed to comply with an order to stop his car. The boy of North African descent subsequently died from his wounds.

The police officer's lawyer wasn't immediately available for comment.

A video shared on social media, verified by Reuters, showed two police officers beside the car, a Mercedes AMG, with one firing his weapon as the driver pulled away.

Nahel's death and the video were shared on social media, drawing widespread anger and provoking several nights of unrest in Nanterre and other cities across France.

At the heart of the unrest were long-standing accusations by rights group of systemic racism in the police.

The lawyer for Nahel's family wasn't immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Juliette Jabkhiro; Editing by Bernadette Baum)