The Algerian influencer “Doualemn”, arrested in Montpellier after a TikTok video containing a call for violence and who theoretically was to be judged at the end of February, is back on French soil after being expelled. He had been “put on a plane” this Thursday, January 9 to Algeria, his lawyer, Jean-Baptiste Mousset, indicated in the afternoon. According to a police source, he was finally sent back to France in the evening, Algeria having “inadmissible”. Contacted by his lawyer confirmed his client’s return: “unfortunately, returning to square one, we fear that he will return to an administrative detention center”. Me Mousset adds “consider” organizing a press conference on Friday.
Placed on Tuesday in an administrative detention center (CRA) in Nîmes, this 59-year-old man 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 the takeoff of his plane, specified Me Mousset, regretting that “the government hastened his expulsion” even though he had lodged appeals.
A video published on TikTok was the subject of a report on January 4 by the mayor of Montpellier, Michaël Delafosse, and the prefect of Hérault, François-Xavier Lauch. According to these two officials, he called in Arabic to “kill” et “to make suffer” a demonstrator opposed to the government of Algiers, adding anti-Semitic comments. On Tuesday, the Montpellier prosecutor noted, however, that translations of this video “carried out by two expert interpreters (…) established that the words “kill him” had not been pronounced” and that the video “nor did it contain a call to kill a person named ‘Cohen’.”
A Franco-Algerian influencer in police custody
A few hours earlier this Thursday, a Franco-Algerian influencer, whose TikTok videos considered hateful had been reported to the courts, is currently in police custody, said the public prosecutor of Lyon, Thierry Dran. It is Sofia Benlemmane, specified the head of the Lyon public prosecutor’s office who had opened two criminal investigations on Wednesday against Franco-Algerian influencers, notably for “death threats and public incitement to hatred”.
Sofia Benlemmane had been in the sights of the authorities for several days for having posted hateful videos that were widely relayed. The influencer – like two other Franco-Algerians in the Lyon region – had been reported by the Rhône prefecture, the prefect of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Fabienne Buccio, declared on Monday. According to his services, these were influencers supposed to reside in or around Lyon who published “more or less recently” videos on the accounts “Abdesslam Bazooka”, “Laksas06” and, therefore, Sofia Benlemmane.
Followed by hundreds of thousands of people, the latter is notably criticized for a live produced in September on TikTok in which she copiously insults another woman in Arabic by throwing at her “This whore who defiles Islam deserves to die.” Abdesslam Bazooka attacked opponents of the Algerian government in a video in Arabic published on December 10, which he describes as “traitors” and he threatens to“cut throat”. 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 influencers have “been permanently suspended for violating our community rules”TikTok had announced by committing to “maintain a safe and welcoming environment for its community”.
Update at 6:05 p.m., addition of the expulsion of an Algerian influencer.
Source: www.liberation.fr
