Sofia Benlemmane, a Franco-Algerian aged around fifty, is currently in police custody, Lyon prosecutor Thierry Dran said this Thursday. According to a police source, he is accused of having disseminated hate messages and threats against Internet users and, more generally, to all those likely to oppose the Algerian regime, and also insulting statements towards France.
The influencer, who regularly hosted lives on TikTok and Facebook, where she is followed by more than 300,000 people, was placed in police custody for “death threats and public incitement to hatred,” said Nelson Bouard, interregional director of the national police. She notably insulted, during a live in Arabic in September, another woman, by saying “screw your mother and your France”, “I hope you are killed, I hope they will kill you “.
A speech that has changed
A former football player often seen at football matches, sporting events and demonstrations linked to Algeria, she was sentenced, in 2001, to seven months’ suspended prison sentence and a three-year stadium ban after having entered a the pitch of the Stade de France, during a France-Algeria friendly match.
A few years ago, she was firmly opposed to the power in place in Algiers. In a 2020 video, she strongly criticized Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune. However, her speech has since changed radically, and she now shows support for the current government in Algiers.
His police custody comes after the arrest, in recent days, of three Algerian influencers living in France, for having posted content online calling for violent acts, often against opponents of the Algerian regime.
On Monday, the Rhône prefecture indicated that it had made reports targeting three other influencers based in Lyon, including Sofia Benlemmane, and two other TikTokers known under the names “Abdesslam Bazooka” and Laksas06.
Suspended accounts
On Tuesday, the Lyon 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 saying which ones were targeted.
Abdesslam Bazooka attacked opponents of the Algerian government in a video in Arabic, published on December 10, whom he describes as “traitors” and threatens to “cut their throats”. Laksas06, for his part, took up, on December 11, an audio from another Franco-Algerian in which he presents the members of the Algerian diaspora in France as “sleeping soldiers” ready to become “martyrs”.
-The accounts of the three Lyon influencers were “permanently suspended for violating our community rules,” TikTok said.
The influencer arrested in Montpellier deported to Algeria
Three other Algerian influencers are already the subject of prosecution for comparable content. Arrested in Brest, a 25-year-old man, baptized “Zazou Youssef”, is accused of a video in which he 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.
A 31-year-old man, nicknamed “Imad Tintin”, was arrested in the suburbs of 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.
The third, arrested in Montpellier, after a TikTok video containing a call for violence and who was theoretically to be judged at the end of February, was “put on a plane” this Thursday, bound for Algeria, his lawyer said. , Jean-Baptiste Mousset.
Placed on Tuesday in an administrative detention center (CRA) in Nîmes, this 59-year-old man, nicknamed Doualemn on TikTok, was taken to Paris this Thursday afternoon, from where he was able to contact his relatives and his lawyer from the airport tarmac, just before his plane took off, said Mousset.
“The government rushed his expulsion to prevent his expulsion”, decided by order of the Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau, “from being examined by a judge”, regretted the lawyer, who announced on Wednesday that he would lodge an appeal before the Paris administrative court. “Exceptional means have been put in place to gag my client,” he added.
France
News
Related News :