The alleged leader of the ultra-right group “Zouaves Paris”, suspected of being involved in the violence during the meeting of presidential candidate Eric Zemmour in Villepinte, was arrested on Tuesday, we learned from a police source, confirming information from France Info.
Marc de Cacqueray – Valmenier was arrested by the Research and Intervention Brigade (BRI) of the police headquarters. He had been identified by several media on videos showing the assault with fists and chairs of SOS Racism activists who had exhibited “No to racism” t-shirts during the first campaign rally of the controversy.
Already sentenced to prison
The 23-year-old young man, who regularly challenges the title of leader of the small group, born in 2018, has already been sentenced to six months suspended prison sentence in January 2019 for violence committed during the “yellow vests” demonstrations on December 1 2018. Ten months in prison were also required against him a month ago at the trial of the baseball bat attack on an antifa bar in Paris, in the Ménilmontant district, in June 2020.
Marc de Cacqueray-Valmenier also boasted on his Instagram account of having gone to fight in the fall of 2020 in Nagorno-Karabakh alongside the Christian Armenians against the Muslim Azerbaijanis. Gérald Darmanin announced on Sunday that he had initiated the procedure for the dissolution of the Zouaves, heirs of GUD, the former far-right student union.