'It was his right to protest, now he has no livelihood’ – Yellow Vest on demonstrator who lost hand

The father of the Yellow Vest protester who had his hand blown off by a gas grenade in Paris on Saturday says he plans a lawsuit, while his comrade says it is symbolic that the injury took place outside the National Assembly.

“He has no hand left below the wrist,” Bernard Maillet, father of Sebastien Maillet, told RT during an interview in its Paris studio, adding that his son also sustained an eye injury and does not fully remember the traumatic incident.

“We plan to lodge a complaint, and we will see what happens from there,” he said.

An activist who goes under the name Boudjema, and who was protesting alongside Maillet, said that the injury – one of hundreds sustained since the protests began in November – “concerns all the Yellow Vests.”

“Sebastien was merely exercising his legal right to demonstrate. Now he has lost his hand. He is a plumber, he needed it for his everyday life and his job,” he said, sitting alongside Maillet’s father.

It is symbolic that he lost it in front of the National Assembly – the house that represents the people. Yet there hasn’t been a word from the authorities.

While details of the incident are still being investigated, the clash occurred when a group of Yellow Vests outnumbered a police unit next to France’s lower chamber of parliament. The police responded by launching tear gas grenades, one of which, according to eyewitnesses, either landed near Maillet, or was picked up by him and exploded.

There are 133 ongoing judicial inquiries over incidents that have occurred at demonstrations. Boudjema thinks it’s no accident that the violence continues despite President Emmanuel Macron’s attempt to pacify protesters with a “national debate.”

“The national disturbances and anger are still growing throughout the land,” Boudjema said, adding that a demonstration to honor Maillet is scheduled for the coming Wednesday.

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