VIDEO: Kurds clash with police in Paris again after killings
Clashes resumed in Paris on Saturday between police and members of the Kurdish community angry over the killing of three community members on Friday.
Several cars were overturned and small fires were lit near Republic Square, a traditional demonstration site where Kurds had previously protested peacefully.
As some protesters left the square, clashes broke out and they threw projectiles at police, who responded with tear gas.
A gunman carried out the killings at a Kurdish cultural center and a nearby cafe on Friday in Paris’s busy 10th arrondissement, stunning a community preparing to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the unsolved murder of three activists.
Police have arrested a 69-year-old man who authorities say was recently released from custody while awaiting trial for a saber attack on a migrant camp in Paris a year ago.
After questioning the suspect, investigators added a suspected racial motive to the original charges of murder and gun violence, prosecutors said Saturday.
After an angry crowd clashed with police on Friday afternoon, the Kurdish Democratic Council of France (CDK-F) held a rally on the Place de République on Saturday.
Hundreds of Kurdish protesters, joined by politicians including the mayor of the central 10th arrondissement, waved flags and listened to a memorial service for the victims.
“We know we are at risk, Kurds in general, Kurdish activists and militants. France owes us protection,” CDK-F spokesman Berivan Firat told BFM TV.
Friday’s killings came before the anniversary of the killing of three Kurdish women in Paris in January 2013.
The investigation was halted after the prime suspect died shortly before the trial, before being reopened in 2019.
“The Kurdish community is afraid. It was already traumatized by a triple murder (in 2013). It needs answers, support and consideration,” David Andic, a lawyer representing CDK-F, told reporters on Friday.
Kurdish representatives who met the Paris police chief on Saturday morning reiterated their call for Friday’s shooting to be treated as a terrorist attack.
The interrogation of the suspect continues, the prosecutor’s office added.
