Participants chant slogans, wave flags and show placards and banners as they take part in a march in tribute to 35-year-old El Hacen Diarra, who died in police custody at the police station of Paris's 20th arrondissement, in Paris on January 25, 2026. BLANCA CRUZ / AFP
Several thousand people protested in Paris Sunday, January 25, over the death in custody of a Mauritanian immigrant worker, yelling slogans against police. The demonstration gathered at the shelter in the northeast of the capital where the man, El Hacen Diarra, 35, had been living and in front of which he was violently arrested by police on the night of January 14. Video filmed by neighbors, shared on social media, showed a policeman punching what appears to be a man on the ground as another officer stands by and watches.
The family has filed a legal complaint accusing security forces of "intentional violence that led to a death." Paris police have launched an internal investigation into what happened. The protesters, gathered to support Diarra's family, members of whom also took part, unfurled banners reading "Justice" and "RIP," before marching to the local police station.
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Probe opened after migrant worker dies in police custody in Paris
