Three French police officers have gone on trial over the beating of a black music producer who they say was not wearing a face mask during the Covid pandemic, in a rare case of police brutality reaching court.

The assault on Michel Zecler, now 47, triggered outrage in France over police violence, which victims and researchers say is systemic but authorities and law enforcement unions claim is limited to isolated cases.

“I expect this trial to hold the police officers accountable,” Zecler told Agence France-Presse in a recent interview.

Campaigners and rights groups have said the case was further evidence of what they saw as the French police’s systemic racism, in a country where they said ethnic minorities received harsher treatment than white people.

Police brutality has been in the spotlight during the student-led protests in recent weeks, during which a 14-year-old lost most of his teeth when a police officer appeared to fire a grenade at him at close range.

Police stopped Zecler outside his Paris…