France: 95 Detained over Controversial Security Bill

France's Interior Minister, Gerald Darmanin, said Sunday that about 70 security personnel were wounded in yesterday’s clashes with demonstrators as a result of protests against the draft Comprehensive Security law across the country.

“Yesterday's outcome: 95 detainees and 67 policemen wounded,” Darmanin wrote on Twitter.

Protesters believe that this draft law assaults freedoms of press, expression and assembly.

More than 52,000 people participated in demonstrations yesterday in various cities of France, demanding that the authorities give up Article 24 of the draft law presented before Parliament, which imposes the payment of a heavy fine and a prison sentence for publishing any clear pictures of the faces of security personnel or revealing their identity.

France has seen weekly nationwide protests over the draft bill, which intensified after footage emerged of three white policemen racially abusing and beating a black music producer, according to the BBC.

Western reports said that thousands of people, including members of the anti-government Yellow Vest movement, had been marching peacefully in the capital when pockets of protesters, dressed in black and with their faces covered, started launching projectiles at riot police.