The father of Nadir, a high school student with a heart disease who died in March during a baccalaureate exam in Lille, filed a complaint for "non-assistance to a person in danger," he said Thursday, with his lawyer. He "filed this complaint himself on April 8 at the central police station in Lille," said his lawyer, Farid Maachi, confirming information from the Voice of the North.

He "asserted facts of non-assistance to person in danger", and "led the complaint against the Gaston Berger school, and all the adults" who supervised the test, added the lawyer. When Nadir, 19, "suffered a heart attack, one or two minutes after the distribution of the subjects, the guards did not react properly," the lawyer said.

"I lost my son. I'll never be able to get it back."

According to several student witnesses, "he was left on the ground, without the supervisors seeming to react", for "about twenty minutes", "even though the school was aware of his fragility", a serious heart pathology, he detailed. Nadir was then transferred to Lille University Hospital where he died. Farid Maachi said he had sent written testimonies to the Lille prosecutor's office, which opened an investigation after the death in "search for the causes of death".


Citing the accounts of a "dozen students," he said Nadir first asked to leave the room, which was denied. Then "he collapsed, agonized, the students screamed, wanted to help him, the supervisors told them 'no, you stay in your place,'" he said. "The adults remained frozen" even when a student warned that he had a heart condition, and a supervisor would have "even stepped over him, continuing to distribute the sheets," he said. After the death, the rectorate had assured that the emergency services had been contacted "directly" and the teenager "immediately placed in a lateral position of safety".

"He was a valuable, cheerful, always positive young man who loved challenges. He told me, 'Dad, I'm going to make you happy and proud,'" he said. "I lost my son. I will never be able to get it back. But I expect justice to enlighten me on the real circumstances of his death," the victim's father told AFP.

  • Justice
  • Lille
  • North
  • Hauts-de-France
  • Nord-Pas-de-Calais
  • BAC (Bachelor's degree)
  • High school
  • Heart attack
  • Inquiry