Former French President Macron’s staff member received a prison sentence in the case of beating protesters

Former employee of the administration of French President Emmanuel Macron, Alexander Benalla, was sentenced to three years in prison. One year he will be in prison, two more years – to serve a suspended sentence, informs France 24.

Benalla was attracted to account in the case of the use of force against the participants of the May Day demonstration in 2018. The scandal erupted after the French media published a video in mid-July 2018 in which a Benall employee during a demonstration in Paris hits a man several times and quickly leaves.

Before that, Benalla received permission from the administration to be present in the ranks of the police. At the time of the incident, the official wore a protective helmet with the emblem of the police special forces on his head, and an orange bandage with the words “police” on his sleeve.

Benalla was charged with violent actions, interference with public service, illegal wearing of insignia, concealment of images from video cameras, violation of professional secrecy, forgery of documents.

Benall’s friend Vincent Kraz, who was a member of Macron’s party “Forward, Republic!” and also participated in the attack on the demonstrators, received a two-year suspended sentence and a fine of 500 euros. Two police officers were also convicted: one of them was fined 5 thousand euros, the other was given a suspended sentence of three months. Police released CCTV footage from the protests to Benalla.