Guinea calls for justice in the return of the body of a young man killed by a police off

The body of a 19-year-old Guinean man killed during a roadside checkpoint on 14 June in south-west France was received in Conakry on Wednesday evening by his family and the authorities, who called for justice to be done, an AFP journalist noted.

"It is with great emotion that we receive the body of young Alhoussein. The Head of State had promised that the body would be brought back here to Guinea for a dignified burial, which has been done by the grace of God," said Foreign Affairs Minister Morissanda Kouyaté on his arrival at the airport.

"The conditions in which he died will be clarified. Guinea wants the justice system in France to do its utmost to elucidate the conditions in which he died", he added.

The father of the young man killed, Fodé Camara, thanked the authorities for standing by the family.

The 52-year-old French police officer who fired the fatal shot was charged on Wednesday with culpable homicide, "with a ban on possessing a weapon and a ban on practising his profession", announced the public prosecutor in Angoulême.

In the early hours of 14 June, in Saint-Yrieix-sur-Charente, on the outskirts of Angoulême, Alhoussein Camara was fatally shot by a police officer as he tried to escape being stopped during a roadside check.

According to the initial investigation, while two police vehicles were attempting to stop him for a check, the young man put his car into reverse and then drove forward, hitting the legs of a police officer, who then fired a shot.

Mr Camara's family were quick to denounce the incident as a "blunder".

The young Guinean, who arrived in France in 2018, was working in a supermarket logistics base, where he was travelling, according to those close to him. He was unknown to the law, according to the public prosecutor.

Between 800 and 1,000 people took part in a march after his death, demanding justice, in the presence of the Guinean ambassador to France, Sinkoun Sylla.

This case echoes the death on Tuesday in Nanterre, near Paris, of Nahel, a young 17-year-old motorist who was killed by a police officer as he tried to escape a roadside check. The tragedy led to two nights of violence across France.