At the Paris judicial court,
The hearing, punctuated by several incidents, is like international news: electric and laborious. For nearly four hours, this Wednesday afternoon, the magistrates of the 17th chamber of the Paris criminal court first examined the priority questions of constitutionality and the nullities of procedures raised by the defense. It is 5:45 p.m. when the defendant is finally called to the stand. Prosecuted for “apology of terrorism”, Warda A., 37, denies being an “influencer” and a “model”, as she has sometimes been presented in the press. Followed on Instagram by nearly 10,000 people, she doesn’t have much interesting to tell her community. “I talk about everything: the news, my days, sports classes, my cooking,” she explains, her hands resting on the desk. “I’m an average woman, it’s an escape. »
On November 3, this divorced mother of two children, who “did not have a high education”, published a story on the social network entitled “Israel I love you”. A publication which sparked many reactions. Warda A. tried to make a more than dubious joke about the war between Israel and Hamas. The video is played to the audience. Facing the camera, this short-haired brunette explains: “Every time I come across the story of the baby who was put in the oven, I wonder if they put salt, pepper, if they added thyme? What did they bring him back to? And what was the support like? You’re not asking yourself that question, are you? » The shocking sequence was reported numerous times to the Pharos platform, managed by the national police. Several associations then filed a complaint and Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior, decided to take legal action. The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation.
An “ordinary girl who finds herself hostage to everything that happens”
Another publication by Warda A., this time posted on Snapchat, also got him into trouble with the law. “I tell you, don’t be afraid to say it, Hamas is not terrorists, it is not a terrorist movement,” she says in this video. She describes this organization as a “political movement, with an armed wing” which “defends Palestine”. The president of the court questions her about the “interest” she has in this conflict. “Today, it’s a bit of a debate in a good part of the world. So it’s a bit normal that I feel impacted by what’s happening,” responds the one who describes herself as an “ordinary girl who finds herself hostage to everything that’s happening, who says what she think “. Through these publications, she “wanted to explain that we are manipulated by propaganda [des médias] who tries to divide us. “It’s adding horror to horror. » Her words, she assures, were taken out of their “context”.
“For me, October 7 is the start of a war. I do not question that October 7 was a terrorist act,” continues the defendant. Before specifying that, for her, “Hamas is a political movement with an armed branch”. “Several French politicians say it,” she justifies herself. Why did she add a banner to her videos that read “Israel I love you”? “It’s a way of outsmarting the algorithms. So he stops blocking my videos. It’s a form of trickery,” she says. “I noticed that my stories were blocked when I defended the Gazans. » Warda A. says she regrets the situation. “It went way too far. I was made to look like a racist, an anti-Semite. I had death threats against me and my children. » She assures that she is not aware of having done “something wrong”. Her words, she swears, were “misinterpreted”.
“There are limits to freedom of expression”
“What I have been trying to defend from the beginning is peace,” she adds, adding that she has the impression that people are trying to “make her pass for an Islamist, an extremist.” The defendant claims to get information through social networks, and to find other sources on Google. For her, this case of a baby found burned in an oven “cannot be true”. “It shocks me too much. I can understand not agreeing with what I think. I see something being said that is being denied, a rumor. »
When the turn of the seven civil parties to question her comes, the thirty-year-old warns that she only wants to answer the judges. Despite everything, the lawyers try to get her to react. In vain. “Not answering is a right but it means something,” says Me Muriel Ouaknine Melki, the lawyer for the European Jewish Organization (EJO), who is asking the court to enter into the sentencing process. For Me Oudy Bloch, the lawyer for the European Jewish Organization (EJO), Warda A. is “dangerous”. “Since October 7, I have been nauseated by all these abject remarks made in public, I have been nauseated by those who refuse to see that the ideology of Hamas is the same as that of Daesh,” denounces the lawyer . “There are limits to freedom of expression,” argues Mr. Gilles Pudlowski, the lawyer for Licra (International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism).
“If it were true, she wouldn’t have done it.”
“Thousands of people were shocked by the defendant’s comments,” underlines Corinne Serfati, the lawyer for the National Office for Vigilance against Anti-Semitism. Before adding: “By the sentence you pronounce, you will show that racism and anti-Semitism do not constitute an idea but an offense. » For the public prosecutor, “the fact of presenting the perpetrators of a terrorist act in a favorable light obviously constitutes an offense”. The magistrate, who believes that the defendant “became radicalized in record time”, requires a 10-month suspended prison sentence.
For Me Elisa Lashab, one of Warda A.’s two lawyers, her client “is ironic about information that she knows to be false”. “She told you, if it was true, she wouldn’t have done it,” she insists. The decision will be rendered on December 6.