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| - A French leading Black Lives Matter campaigner went on trial on Thursday in Paris for slander after she gave the names of police officers in a 2019 Facebook post accusing them of killing her younger brother. Assa Traore, 36, became an international figure in the fight against police violence and racism, after she organised protests in Paris following the death of George Floyd in the US last May, pointing to what she says are similarities with the death of her brother in 2016. Adama Traore, 24, who was black, died in police custody and family and friends of Traore continue to press for a trial and a full account of the circumstances leading up to his death. "I accuse the police officers ... of killing my brother by crushing him with the weight of their bodies," Assa Traore wrote in a Facebook post in July 2019 titled "I accuse" -- a reference to writer Emile Zola's famous text in support of a Jewish captain wrongly accused of spying. The police officers Traore named in the post are suing her for slander. "When I wrote this text, we had no hope, because the voice of my family was not listened to," Traore told a courtroom packed with supporters, all wearing masks. "If the justice system had done its work, I would not have needed to write it," she added. Assa Traore "is not satisfied by the investigation and wants to subsidise it with a media truth", said lawyer for two of the officers, Rodolphe Bosselut. "How does giving the name of the police officers pave the way to the truth (of the cause for Traore's death)?" he said. A demonstration to show support for Traore has been called in front of the courtroom for Friday afternoon, the last day of the trial. If convicted, Traore risks a fine. ech/har
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