On social networks, she calls herself “Selma 8th Merveille”. Followed by tens of thousands of people on Instagram and Snapchat, this 35-year-old mother posts photos of herself in an evening dress or riding a buggy in the Sahara. But it’s another type of video that got Selma Mansouri in trouble with the law.
A video showing her assaulting and humiliating two young men, which she released herself last Thursday. As revealed The Parisian, the influencer was indicted on Saturday by an investigating judge in Pontoise (Val-d’Oise), for “theft with a weapon, aggravated violence, kidnapping and sequestration and dissemination of images relating to the commission of ‘a willful attack on the integrity of the person’. She has since been remanded in custody.
Recruited on Snapchat
According to our information, two young men from Sarcelles, aged 19, went to his home on Thursday evening. They were allegedly recruited by a mysterious sponsor on Snapchat to burn Selma Mansouri’s car, in exchange for a few hundred euros. But on site, the duo, who were supposed to throw a Molotov cocktail at the vehicle, were spotted by the influencer’s neighbors who warned her.
The two men are caught by Selma Mansouri, helped by some young people from the neighborhood. In a parking lot, they were beaten and sprayed with tear gas. Their ordeal has only just begun. They are then taken back to the young woman’s home where they are stripped naked and beaten with a billiard stick.
The scene is filmed and broadcast live on social networks. We can see the victims being humiliated by Selma Mansouri who orders them to give her the identity of their sponsor. According to her, this is another influencer who had filed a complaint against her for harassment.
Four days of ITT for the two victims
The suspect asks them to get on their knees, to state their names and humiliates them while beating them. The two victims finally manage to escape. They were found by the police, informed that two naked men were walking in the street. Taken to hospital, they were given four days of ITT. The influencer was immediately arrested and placed in police custody.
Before investigators, Selma Mansouri admitted the facts. “She lost her nerve and fell into a sort of delirium of revenge,” explains to 20 minutes his lawyer, Me Tom Michel. According to him, his client, who is “regularly attacked in front of her home”, was “scared” for her two children who were playing in the garden a few moments before the incident.
The suspect’s counsel, however, believes that there are “double standards”. He regrets that “justice tends to be more severe, in a preventive manner, towards influencers”, and that it is reluctant to place them under judicial control or electronic surveillance, for fear that they will formulate criticism on the networks social. He wants his client “to be heard on the merits of the case” quickly “and for her to leave prison to take care of her children”.
“Targets that are easy to reach”
The investigation, opened by the Pontoise public prosecutor’s office for destruction by dangerous means, continues in order to identify and arrest the sponsor of the two young men. “Unfortunately, influencers become easy targets,” laments Mr. Tom Michel, who defends several of them.
Contacted by 20 minutesthe prosecution did not respond to our requests.