The trial of thirteen Internet users suspected of cyberbullying and threatening to kill Mila has been postponed to June 21. – Francois Mori / AP / SIPA
- Mila, 18, was the victim of massive cyberstalking and facing death and rape threats after twice posting videos on social media in 2020 in which she criticized Islam and the Prophet Muhammad.
- In total, the high school student from Isère has received more than 100,000 hate messages on social networks since the start of the case, which now bears her first name.
- Scheduled for a single half-day, the trial which was to be held this Thursday before the 10th chamber of the Paris judicial tribunal has been postponed to June 21.
In the judicial court, in Paris
For more than a year, Mila, an 18-year-old high school student from Isère, has received thousands of messages of insults and threats. Words of incredible violence poured unfiltered by disembodied Twitter accounts in reaction to the publication of a video in which she criticized Islam. For the first time this Thursday, Mila was able to meet the eyes of some of these Internet users, suspected of having participated in the second wave of cyberstalking launched against her in the fall of 2020. Scarlet tunic with puffed sleeves and semi-shaved head , the teenager observed at length the defendants summoned this Thursday before the 10th chamber of the Paris court.
Aged 18 to 35, the thirteen Internet users referred in this case are being prosecuted for “moral harassment online”. An offense for which they risk two years in prison and a fine of 30,000 euros. Ten of them were also appearing for “death threats” or “threat of another crime”, facts that could be punished by three years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros. A “eagerly awaited” trial by Mila, recalled her lawyer Lorraine Gay. He was finally returned to June 21, two priority questions of constitutionality (QPC) having been raised at the hearing by one of the defendants’ lawyers, Juan Branco.
“I wish you to die”
For four hours, President Michaël Humbert did educational work in front of a large audience and the majority of defendants who had made the trip. “There is a judicial ritual that can seem a bit outdated in the age of social networks. This ritual was thought out and designed to try to bring out the truth as far as possible, peace and justice. He wants everyone to listen to each other, for everyone to speak when they have to speak, ”explained the magistrate in the preamble. Checking the identities of the ten men and three women sent to court, he also took the time to quote the incriminated messages and the offenses alleged against each other.
“I wish you to die in the most atrocious way that can exist (…) I will have the greatest pleasure to lacerate your body with my most beautiful knife”, thus sent a young woman aged 19. “Mila she will keep going until someone finds her and dies her, that’s all she deserves.” And all those who defend Mila deserve to die too, ”wrote another 20-year-old defendant. Messages that may constitute an offense of online harassment created by the Schiappa law, adopted in 2018.
“Let fear change sides”
It is precisely on this point that the lawyer Juan Branco, counsel to one of the defendants in this case, raised a first priority question of constitutionality (QPC). Denouncing a “serious” and “instrumentalised” case to respond to “political and media interests”, Juan Branco criticized the “shaky” wording of the offense of “cyberbullying” and pointed out “two major risks for our fundamental rights”: “Confusion and attack on freedom of expression”. He also raised a second QPC, already defended during a previous trial and rejected by the Court of Appeal of Versailles, on the aggravating circumstance granted to moral harassment when it is “committed by means of an electronic communication network. “.
Still an educator, the president indicated that the court would render its decision on these two points on June 21. “To render good justice, it is sometimes necessary to resist the temptation of immediacy (…) The work of justice requires time”, he justified. Two scenarios are now possible. Either the court decides to transmit these QPCs to the Court of Cassation and the trial will be referred again, or the magistrates decide not to transmit them and the trial will be held over two days, on June 21 and 22.
Visibly moved at the end of the hearing and surrounded by her police protection service, Mila insisted that there was “no anonymity” online. “Whether you are a young adolescent, an adult, from the moment you commit a crime on the Internet, you can be searched for, found and be tried in court (…) It is time to say it, that fear changes sides and the more numerous we will be to open it, the stronger and more powerful we will be in the face of threats and harassment, ”she concluded in front of the cameras.