French police suspended for robbery

Press, 5 August 1985, Page 20

French police suspended for robbery

NZPA-AFP Paris Three policemen have been suspended for allegedly robbing a jewellery shop and taking three hostages in central Paris, announced the French Interior Ministry. They are Inspector Alain Rossi, aged 36, of the crack drug and vice squad; Detective Pascal Jumel, aged 29, of the anti-robbery squad; and Jean-Louis Naud, a motor-cycle patrolman. Also arrested was a police informer, Patrick Hamri, aged 26. Rossi and Hamri have been charged with robbery and hostage-taking. Jumel and Naud are in detention, although neither has yet been charged. The informer, Hamri, is reported to have told the police that on July 25 a

jeweller, David Yaghil, was about to leave his Paris flat to go to his shop when a voice at the front door called out: “Open up, police!” The jeweller did so and two men allegedly walked in — Naud and Hamri. They showed their police badges and said they were investigating a case of receiving stolen goods, the police said. According to his account to the police, Hamri then drew out a pistol and told Haghil, his wife, Dina, and her two sisters: “This is a hold-up.”

Hamri went with Yaghil to rob his shop of all valuables while Naud handcuffed two sisters and hit the third. He held them at gunpoint, awaiting a telephone call from Hamri to

release them when he had , the jewellery. s But here the plan began J to go astray. One of the i sisters attacked Naud, and ' the family’s big Dobermann \ dog savaged him so badly * that he surrendered. { The sisters telephoned the • police, who sent a patrol to “ the jeweller’s shop. Hamri ' t was arrested as he was emerging with the loot. ; The incident is the latest < in a series of “crooked ■ cops” scandals to emerge in ' Paris. ; Eight members of a main ’ Paris police station — two -i inspectors and six detec- 1 tives — were arrested for ! theft in July. , The Interior Ministry said 120 members of the 120.000- ’ strong national police were 5 charged with criminal of- J fences in 1984.