"For a moment, I wondered if I was really in France, and not in a cell in China." When he recounts the episode, three months after the events, Wen (name has been changed) still seems on the verge of breaking down. Violence, discriminatory remarks, degrading behavior: This 37-year-old Chinese national has filed a complaint for abuse he claims to have suffered at the hands of police officers while being held in custody at the 5th and 6th arrondissement police station in Paris at the end of 2025.
One year earlier, three officers from the same police station had been given suspended prison sentences of between 12 and 24 months for violence against a Peruvian national during his police custody, as revealed by the newspaper Libération. Following Wen's complaint, the Paris prosecutor's office confirmed having opened an investigation for intentional violence by a public official.
In his complaint and in his police custody interview – which Le Monde has seen – Wen described the beginning of the ordeal he denounced. On the afternoon of November 30, 2025, this artist, who left the US to settle in France earlier that year thanks to a talent passport, was walking in central Paris. He met strangers and smoked a joint with them. Having not eaten since the previous day, the slightly built man (47 kilos for 1.68 meters) was in an altered state, "nauseous and dehydrated."
