The beating of photojournalist Ameer Alhalbi by police exposes the corruption of the French political elite

While covering protests in Paris, the 24-year-old was hospitalised after being beaten by police – further evidence that France has a profound policing problem, writes Borzou Daragahi

French riot police charge towards protesters at Place de la Bastille as demonstrations against the French government’s global security law turn violent (Getty)

Photojournalist Ameer Alhalbi escaped the sadistic brutality of Syria under dictator Bashar al-Assad, moving to Europe in the hope of finding freedom. Instead, the 24-year-old found the end of French police truncheons.  

On Saturday, while covering protests in Paris’s Place de la Bastille, he became the victim of a beating by police that was so brutal it left him hospitalised with a broken nose and other injuries. He was shown in a photo on social media with wounds on his face and his head wrapped in bandages.  

Ironically, the protests he was attempting to cover were against rampant police brutality and a law peddled by France’s right-wing interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, that would shield French cops from accountability.