The French government “rushed her expulsion” to prevent her “from being examined by a judge”, regretted the lawyer, denouncing the “exceptional means” implemented to “gag” his client, who was to be tried at Montpellier on February 24.
If the translation of one of his videos reported on Saturday by the socialist mayor of Montpellier and the prefect of Hérault finally established that the term “kill him” had not been pronounced, this one “on the other hand called for give a severe correction to a man appearing to reside in Algeria,” said Montpellier public prosecutor Fabrice Belargent on Tuesday.
It is in any case a “call for torture” targeting “an opponent of the current regime in Algeria”, an appeal justifying the withdrawal of his residence permit and his expulsion, declared Thursday morning the prefect of the ‘Hérault, François-Xavier Lauch.
Also on Thursday, Sofia Benlemmane, a Franco-Algerian in her fifties, was taken into police custody, Lyon prosecutor Thierry Dran told AFP.
He is accused of having disseminated hate messages and threats against Internet users and more generally against all those likely to oppose the Algerian regime, as well as insulting statements towards France.
The influencer, followed by more than 300,000 people on TikTok and Facebook, was placed in police custody for “death threats and public incitement to hatred”, according to Nelson Bouard, interregional director of the national police.
“Fuck your mother and your France”, “I hope you are killed, I hope they will kill you”, she said to another woman in September. This former football player had already made headlines in 2001 when she was given a seven-month suspended prison sentence and a three-year stadium ban for entering the pitch at the Stade de France during a friendly match. France-Algeria.
If she strongly criticized Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune in a 2020 video, her speech has since radically changed and she now shows support for the Algiers government.
This expulsion and police custody take place in a context of diplomatic tensions between France and Algeria, after the arrest of two other Algerian influencers living in France.
Arrested in Brest on January 3, Youcef A., 25, alias “Zazou Youssef” on TikTok, is accused of having called for attacks in France and violence in Algeria. Placed in pre-trial detention, he will be tried on February 24 for advocating terrorism and faces seven years in prison.
Aged 31, “Imad Tintin” was placed in police custody on Saturday in Grenoble for a video, since removed, in which he called for “burning alive, killing and raping on French soil”. Also in custody, he will be tried on March 5 for provocation of acts of terrorism.
On Monday, the Rhône prefecture indicated that it had made reports targeting three other influencers based in Lyon, Sofia Benlemmane and two other TikTokers known under the names “Abdesslam Bazooka” and “Laksas06”.
The Lyon public prosecutor’s office immediately announced the opening of two investigations, one for “provocation to the commission of a crime or misdemeanor” and the other for “death threats and public incitement to hatred”. targeting two of these three influencers, without specifying which ones.
In a video in Arabic published on December 10, Abdesslam Bazooka attacked opponents of the Algerian government, calling them “traitors” and threatening to “cut their throats.”
Laksas06, for his part, took up an audio from another Franco-Algerian on December 11 in which he presented members of the Algerian diaspora in France as “sleeping soldiers” ready to become “martyrs”.
The accounts of these three Lyon influencers have “been permanently suspended for violating our community rules,” TikTok said.
