More protests planned as assault on 22-year-old arrested in Paris suburb is deemed accidental by French investigators.

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Tensions between police and protesters have flared again in the French capital after a police investigation concluded there was insufficient evidence to show that the assault on a young black man by an officer using a truncheon was a a rape.

The conclusion on Thursday came a week after the arrest in the northern Paris suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois of the 22-year-old victim, who has been identified only as Theo.

The AFP news agency cited a police source as saying that having taken into account CCTV recordings and witness accounts, "there are insufficient elements to show that this was a rape".

A video of the scene shows a policeman "applying a truncheon blow horizontally across the buttocks with a truncheon" and Theo's trousers "slipped down on their own", the source said.

However, an investigating magistrate had charged one of the police officers with rape and three others with aggravated assault and is still examining the case.

Police union viewpoint

The case has revived the contentious issue of policing in France's deprived suburbs.

In an interview with the Associated Press news agency, Yves Lefebvre, a police union chief, suggested the rape charge was filed "to calm or to stop a violent outburst" in what is a sensitive suburban neighbourhood.

Aulnay-sous-Bois was one of the worst-hit suburbs during 2005 riots around Paris.

Lefebvre said there was no evidence so far that "the truncheon was actually introduced" into the victim's rectum. And if that actually happened, it was likely done "accidentally", he said.

Defender of Human Rights, an independent French watchdog group, has said it will investigate "this dramatic case that illustrates the conflicts that sometimes arise from identity checks".

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