Two former members of Generation Identity, a far-right group dissolved in 2021, were sentenced in Lyon on Tuesday for hateful tweets targeting the rector of the Lyon mosque Kamel Kabtane.
One of the two accused, a former spokesman, was given a four-month suspended prison sentence. The second, an ex-militant, was fined 5,000 euros. They were being prosecuted for “public provocation to hatred” after targeting Kamel Kabtane, accused of having called for prayer during confinement.
He explained at the time that the only call to prayer launched in Lyon during confinement had been that launched on March 25, 2020, at the same time as the bells of all the churches in France rang in solidarity with the caregivers. But the identities had continued to target the rector.
Petition, photo montage
At the time, Génération identitaire had projected visuals on the minaret of the mosque denouncing these calls to Muslim prayer which, according to them, had resonated during confinement.
The Identitaires had also published on social networks a petition demanding the expulsion of the rector to Algeria and several hateful tweets, including one displaying the photo of the person concerned next to that of Salah Abdeslam, who participated in the attacks. from November 13, 2015 in Paris and Saint-Denis. This tweet then claimed that the two men had the intention of “the Islamization of France”.
Among the three targeted perpetrators, only two could be identified and had admitted the facts to the investigators. However, they were not present at the hearing on January 18, during which the prosecution requested a six-month suspended prison sentence and a 15,000 euro fine against them.
“This sentence confirms to me that (…) no one can be the subject of such execrable treatment as that to which I was subjected by individuals who, under the guise of freedom of expression, believed they had the right to attack my dignity and my honor by calling into question my belonging to this country and the action that I have always undertaken in the service of living together and of the country”, reacted Kamel Kabtane in a statement.