France launches probe into 2020 death of Black man

By Nur Asena Erturk

ANKARA (AA) – France has launched an investigation into the death of a Black man back in 2020, local media reported on Wednesday.

Mahamadou Fofana, 35, escaped police while they tried to interrogate him in Yvelines, a city near Paris, on Sep. 14, 2020, daily Le Parisien said.

Police officers chased him and said they found Fofana's body in the Seine river.

Authorities claimed that no acts of violence had been committed and that Fofana drowned in the river.

The Black man's family contested the authorities’ statement when they saw Mahamadou's body at the morgue.

His cousin Assa Traore – who is also the sister of Adama Traore, another Black man who died in police custody at age 24 in 2016 – mentioned a "completely deformed skull."

The first request for a judicial investigation was dismissed in March 2021.

The family filed a second complaint in July 2022.

A judge was appointed on Jan. 20 to investigate the incident, according to Le Parisien.