After Zazou Youcef in Brest and Imad Tintin in Échirolles, a third Algerian influencer was arrested this Sunday, announced Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau.
“Thank you to the state services, the magistrates and the police who made it possible to locate and arrest this individual this evening,” he said on his X account, relaying a tweet from the newspaper Valeurs Current.
The mayor of Montpellier and the prefect of Hérault reported to the courts on Saturday the publication on the social network TikTok of a video by this influencer residing in Montpellier, in which he called for violence against an Algerian anti-regime demonstrator.
It is an Internet user who presents himself as an Algerian political activist who took refuge in France, Chawki Benzehra, who alerted to the comments of this influencer, “Ami Boualem”, followed by more than 138,000 people on TikTok, denouncing “call for murder , apology for torture, anti-Semitic remarks.”
“Algerians, catch this individual and kill him”
According to him, this man, who lives in Montpellier and is “famous within the Algerian community in the south of France”, spoke in a video to people who had wanted to demonstrate against the Algerian regime on January 1.
Still according to this activist, the influencer then attacked a “young activist”, a video of which was allegedly shared by “a person named Cohen”. “Algerians, catch this individual and kill him. Because Cohen shared his video,” says “Ami Boualem” in Arabic in a video extract subtitled in French. “We can’t wait any longer my brothers. (…) You Algerians, who are in Algeria, should take care of him. This is our country,” he continues, visibly angry, facing the camera.
In a second excerpt, the influencer claims that “the police have been given pliers”: “When they catch someone, they won’t go to prison, they will pull out all their nails and call the hospitals if someone present with torn nails. Don’t treat him, let him suffer,” he urges.
For Chawki Benzehra, who explained to AFP that he was an Algerian opponent who took refuge in France after taking part in pro-democratic demonstrations against power in 2019, the video echoes a “rampant anti-Semitism” which is growing in strength according to him currently in Algeria. “Tell yourself that this individual who makes these remarks and delights in the description of acts of torture records his videos in the city center of Montpellier,” he continues.
A third influencer arrested in three days
This new report is part of a line of legal disputes involving two other Algerian influencers. Friday, Youcef A., alias “Zazou Youcef” on social networks, was arrested in Brest and placed in police custody for advocating an act of terrorism and provoking hatred and violence, after having called “his community to commit attacks in France,” according to Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau.
Another influencer who gave him his support, Imad Tintin, alias “Bledar de luxe” online and resident in Grenoble, was also placed in police custody on Saturday, for “death threats materialized in writing, image or other object, committed because of race, ethnicity, nation or religion. »
