It was far-right activists who revealed it, but the indignation extends to the left: the deputy Ugo Bernalicis and the members of the group La France insoumise tabled a proposal on Tuesday, November 19 of law aimed at “repeal the offense of glorifying terrorism from the penal code”.
► What does La France insoumise want to repeal?
The bill is short. On the one hand, it repeals the article of the penal code which punishes “directly provoking acts of terrorism or publicly advocating these acts”. On the other hand, it requests parliamentary reports on the use of this article.
In the explanatory memorandum, the text claims “a desire to preserve freedom of expression and particularly political debate from any intrusion by repressive institutions”. And to insist: “In the name of advocating terrorism, police and justice resources are diverted to make them the place for settling political debates; demonstrations, conferences, public expressions were banned, prevented, stifled. »
Particularly targeted is a circular of October 10, 2023 specifying that the apology of terrorism includes the public making of remarks praising the terrorist attacks suffered by Israel on October 7, 2033 “by presenting them as legitimate resistance to Israel”. However, many elected officials, executives and activists of LFI consider that these massacres only constitute war crimes within the framework of the “Palestinian resistance”or even a “armed offensive by Palestinian forces”, perceiving Hamas as a “resistance movement” and not as a terrorist organization.
Mathilde Panot, president of the group in the National Assembly, and Rima Hassan, now a European deputy, were thus heard in April 2024 by the judicial police due to complaints of advocating terrorism. The bill itself simply talks about “war crimes and massacres perpetrated on October 7, 2023 by Hamas in Israel”and not terrorism.
► What does LFI propose to fight against the apology of terrorism?
“We do not want to repeal the offense of glorifying terrorism, we want to return to the state prior to 2014, that is to say reestablish this offense in press law,” assured Mathilde Panot, Sunday November 24 on BFMTV. “This is not a new incrimination, but a transfer to the penal code of what already appeared in the law of July 29, 1881 on freedom of the press”confirms Yves Mayaud, professor emeritus at the University of Paris-Panthéon-Assas, in a note published by Le Club des juristes.
“This transfer was made for reasons of efficiency”continues this specialist in criminal law. Before the law of November 13, 2014 strengthening the provisions relating to the fight against terrorism, the apology of terrorism was in fact “ of a particularly favorable regime, which has always been dictated by the desire to freedom of the press protected from excessive repression”. Hence the desire of the left-wing government of the time to insert this offense into the penal code in order to allow the application of “common law rules of procedure and prosecution, excluded in press matters, such as the possibility of seizures or the possibility of resorting to the immediate appearance procedure”.
It is therefore the previous regime, that of the law of 1881, that LFI would like to see applied again. If Ugo Bernalicis' bill clearly displays this intention in its explanatory statement, it does not transpose it into law. In other words, the text does not only expunge the criminal code of the offense of advocating terrorism, but all of French law.
