Sports / Off the Field |
Paris fans march in memory of killed supporter(Reuters)Updated: 2006-12-04 11:01 PARIS, Dec 3 - Hundreds of Paris St Germain fans marched in silence on Sunday in memory of a supporter whose killing by a policeman prompted a nationwide debate on hooliganism and a crackdown on violence at the club. The black policeman shot dead 25-year-old Julien Quemener while under attack from a group of supporters shouting racist insults and chasing a Jewish fan after PSG's home defeat to Israel's Hapoel Tel Aviv 10 days ago, police say. Sunday's match between PSG and Toulouse was postponed for security reasons and the Boulogne Kop, an area of the Parc des Princes where PSG's most extreme fans traditionally assemble, has been closed until further notice. Quemener was a member of the Boulogne Boys, a group of supporters that includes some far-right sympathisers and people registered by the police as violent. The demonstrators, who police said numbered up to 1,200, marched slowly past PSG's home stadium and the spot nearby where Quemener was killed, bearing a large black banner that read: "May justice be done!". Many of them challenge the police's version of events, which says the officer who shot Quemener fired in self-defence. "People should stop saying that he was a neo-Nazi, that he was a hooligan, that Paris supporters are thugs," an unnamed demonstrator told France 2 television. The march ended peacefully.
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