French appeal court confirms suspended sentence for police commissioner who ordered charge injuring 73-year-old Yellow Vest protester
An appeals court in Lyon upheld a six-month suspended prison term for Rabah Souchi, the police commander who ordered a charge that gravely injured Geneviève Legay during a 2019 Yellow Vest protest in Nice.
The injury
On a Saturday in 2019, Geneviève Legay, then 73, joined a Yellow Vest demonstration in central Nice. She was knocked to the ground when officers rushed a small group of elderly protesters and journalists. Legay lay unconscious, suffering several fractures, including to the skull. She spent two months in hospital and lost her sense of smell, part of her taste, and 35 percent hearing in her right ear.
The order
The commissioner on duty, Rabah Souchi, had given the instruction to charge. During the appeal hearing in Lyon in February 2026, the advocate general argued that the order was "not necessary, inappropriate and illegal."
The order to charge the crowd, which included a group of elderly people and journalists, was not necessary, inappropriate and illegal.
Souchi, who later became deputy director of the Nice municipal police, was convicted of complicity in violence by a person entrusted with public authority. In court he expressed compassion for Legay but refused to accept responsibility for the physical action of the officers who pushed her to the ground.
I have compassion for Mrs Legay, but I will not assume responsibility for the gesture of those who violently knocked her down.
His lawyer maintained that Souchi had merely passed on an order he was given and called him a scapegoat in a highly publicised case.
The ruling
On Monday 29 June 2026 the Lyon appeals court confirmed the same six-month suspended sentence handed down at first instance on 8 March 2024. Crucially, the court again ordered that the conviction not be entered in the criminal record, meaning Souchi can probably keep his police post.
In the evening the Nice municipality stated that, given the conviction, Souchi's position was "incompatible with the exercise of functions within the municipal police." However, it added that before the appeal hearing Souchi had already requested an end to his secondment, and his duties would cease on 31 July.
Reaction
Outside the courthouse in Nice several dozen people gathered at the call of the association Attac. Geneviève Legay, now 80, attended with her lawyer Mireille Damiano.
Satisfied.
Damiano told reporters she was satisfied that the conviction had been confirmed.
