Apparently, anti-racism activist Assa Traore is unable to accept that her cousin - who stole two scooters, fled police, jumped into the river Seine and drowned - was described as a motorcycle thief by the press. She is organising a protest outside the offices of the newspaper that reported on the incident and blames police for the tragedy.

The latest case involving the Traore clan appears to continue, just as we expected. In a recent article, V4NA has covered the ordeal of the cousin of Assa Traore (the head of the Traore clan and the so-called Adama Traore Committee), who jumped into the river Seine and drowned as he was trying to flee police in a van full of stolen scooters. Assa Traore and the deceased young man s sister appealed to the puplic in a video, asking potential witnesses to come forward in a bid to clarify the circumstances of his death. The two women have not simply rejected the official police narrative but went even further to blame law enforcement officers for her cousin s death.

A video, apparently filmed with a mobile phone and shared online, shows Assa Traore at the scene of the unfortunate accident, stressing that her cousin was killed by police. Then, all of a sudden, she starts yelling angrily at the officers who raised their rubber bullet guns upon noticing a man brandishing a stick. Assa keeps repeating that their lives are in the hands of the officer who is pointing a gun at her and the others, although the officer is not seen in the footage. Meanwhile, it can be heard that a woman, who has possibly noticed that Assa Traore s phone is still on and recording, is trying to calm her down.

On behalf of the so-called Adama Committee – named after her brother Adama, who died following his arrest in 2016 – Assa Traore is trying to organise a new protest. The activist heading up the Traore clan is apparently furious that her cousin Mahamadou – who was caught red-handed while stealing scooters and later drowned while trying the escape – was described as a motorcycle thief by the press, and by Julien Constant, a journalist with the daily Le Parisien, to be more exact. In response, she issued a statement through her committee, saying that will stage a demonstration before the editorial offices of the daily newspaper. 

In another article published after the incident, the journalist also revealed that the young man who drowned in the Seine was known to authorities. He had an extensive criminal record displaying ten counts of theft and he was also sentenced for 18 months imprisonment for drug trafficking offences. This is probably the main reason why he was trying to get away from the scene, which eventually cost him his life. Le Parisien also asked Yassine Bouzrou, the lawyer of the Traore family, but he refused to comment. He only said that the victim was not a motorcycle thief, and accused the newspaper of making defamatory statements. Police, however, confirmed that they did find two stolen motorcycles in the van driven by Mahamadou.

A forensic postmortem examination also revealed that the cause of Mahamadou s death was drowning. The injuries visible on his body occurred during resuscitation, as one of the officers jumped into the water, pulled him ashore and attempted to save his life, unsuccessfully.

The law enforcement authority investigating the case (IGPN) questioned the officers involved right Immediately after the incident. They all claimed not to have had any physical contact with the victim, and that Mahamadou had jumped into the river on his own will, which the autopsy report confirmed.

The fact that Assa Traore accuses Le Parisien s journalist of libel and distorting the facts is ironic, because in a recently uncovered foootage, the host of a television show confronts the activist with the fact that she had described the yellow-vest protesters as „racist and fascist”. At first, Assa Traore is in denial, but when shown the actual recording, she embarks on a convoluted explanation arguing that the Adama Committe had joined forces with the yellow-vest movement. By that, however, she only provided additional evidence of her hypocrisy.