Chelsea fans in Paris Métro racism row in court fight against travel bans - Victim says his life has been shattered: ‘I want justice to be done’

Posted Wednesday, July 15, 2015 by theguardian.com

Chelsea fans preventing a black man from boarding a Métro train in Paris

Four Chelsea fans who face travel bans during international matches due to their alleged involvement in a racist incident on the Paris Métro go to court on Wednesday to fight the banning orders.

The men will appear at Stratford magistrates court, east London, after video footage showed a black man attempting to get on a Métro carriage but being pushed off by a group of fans travelling to a Chelsea Champions League match in February.

The Metropolitan police sought to ban the men from attending UK football matches, and from travelling abroad during periods defined by the Home Office as coinciding with big football games.

At a preliminary hearing in March the men said they would contest the ban. But one, Dean Callis, 32, from Islington, north London, finally accepted the ban last week.

He is banned from attending football matches in the UK for five years, and will be forced to surrender his passport to Islington police station during Home Office “control periods” to prevent him travelling to matches abroad.

Richard Barklie, 50, a director of a human rights organisation and former police officer, from Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, and Joshua Parsons, 20, from Dorking, Surrey will appear with Jordan Munday, 20, from Sidcup, south-east London, and William Simpson, 26, from Ashford, Surrey.

Chelsea fans in Paris Métro racism row in court fight against travel bans - Victim says his life has been shattered: ‘I want justice to be done’
Souleymane S describes the shock he felt as he was pushed off a carriage on the Paris Metro

Meanwhile in Paris, Souleymane S, 33, the French sales manager filmed being pushed off the train, said his life had been shattered by the attack. "It was a shock that I can’t get over,” he said.

"You’re on your way home from work and you’re pushed out of the Métro just because you’re black and the people who are doing it to you say: ‘Yes, we’re racist and we like it like that, we’re fine with that.’

"All I was doing was trying to get home. I tried to go straight back to work and resume life after the attack, but after the trauma I found it very hard to get back on the Métro. I don’t take the Métro any more. For the first time in my life, I’m being treated for depression and I’ve had to take sick leave from work. It feels as if I’m not the same person I was before that attack.”

A father of three children, he said he was often recognised as the person who took legal action against Chelsea fans. “There are French Chelsea supporters in my neighbourhood who jeer at me. I’m afraid to go out.

"The people were identified, we know who they are, they know who they are and they know what they did. But they’re walking free, while I feel like I’m in a kind of prison. I just want a trial, I want justice to be done. What happened was serious – it wasn’t a minor issue – and if justice isn’t done, then what message does that send?”

Any criminal trial must take place in France under the French justice system because that is where the alleged crime took place.

A French police investigation was launched in February with cooperation from the Metropolitan police. For a trial to take place in France, a French judge would have to issue an international arrest warrant for the suspects to be extradited for trial, a potentially arduous process.

If found guilty, the maximum penalty they could face would be a three-year prison sentence and a €45,000 (£32,000) fine.