A 25-year-old Algerian was arrested in the early morning in Brest and taken into police custody for advocating an act of terrorism and provoking hatred and violence. The man has already been convicted of damage and is required to leave the country.
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Friday around 6:00 a.m., police intervened in a working-class neighborhood of Brest and arrested Youcef A., as well as another 41-year-old man, also Algerian, suspected of being his accomplice, who was lodging him.
The two menwere both placed in police custody for acts of advocating an act of terrorism and provoking hatred and violence“, Brest public prosecutor Camille Miansoni told AFP, stressing that investigations were continuing.
Originally, on Tuesday, December 31, a video was published on the social network TikTok, where the Internet user, followed by 400,000 people, spoke vehemently in Arabic, calling for acts of violence. Its targets are difficult to identify, but appear to be opponents of the Algerian regime. “ We will shoot at you”, “we must make the powder speak, President Tebboune [le président de la République algérienne, NDLR]”.
These comments emerge at a time when tensions are high between France and Algeria.
This video was sent to the Pharos platform for reporting illegal content on the internet.
“When the police informed me that they had detected this video, I asked them to contact the prosecution immediately so that a judicial investigation would immediately give us the means to investigate“, Finistère prefect Alain Espinasse told AFP.
For several days, Youssef R.'s videos had been relayed by a large number of Internet users close to the extreme right.
Friday morning, it was the Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau who first announced his arrest.
His arrest has since been relayed by all French media.
Youcef A., born in Mostaganem in the northwest of Algeria, declared that he arrived in France in 2020, and received a residence permit in March 2023, valid until March 14, 2024, according to Mr. Espinasse.
“He had a residence permit as the parent of a French child since he had a child with a person of French nationality“, specified the prefect.
During the urban riots which shook France after the death of Nahel in June 2023, Youcef A. was arrested for having taken part in the damage to a sports complex in Brest and sentenced in December by the city's criminal court to twelve months' imprisonment.
“He appealed following his conviction“, which explains why he was not imprisoned, said Mr. Espinasse.
The hearing of his appeal trial is “pending setting”, according to the Rennes Court of Appeal.
“Given the facts of which he was guilty, when his residence permit expired in March 2024, I decided not to renew it and he was notified on April 18, 2024 of an Obligation to leave French territory. (OQTF)” he said.
After the delivery of his OQTF, Youcef A. was “registered in the Wanted Persons File (FPR)“, added the prefect, specifying that the young man was neither on S file nor identified for radicalization.
As journalist Erwan Seznec points out in Le Point, the man who is presented as an influencer essentially posted videos about football and numerous photos of himself.
On December 26, he relayed a sermon in Arabic on Facebook, the words of which do not resemble those of a radicalized Islamist: ” To have a heart without rancor towards Muslims is to have a pure heart like that of birds, a pious and pure heart without deception or rancor“.
Other extracts from his videos give a glimpse of a young man full of himself, proud of his native country and angry with France.
The investigation opened by the Brest public prosecutor's office should make it possible to clarify his motivations and draw up his psychological profile.
