2023-09-15 04:28:37
Four neo-Nazi sympathizers were placed in police custody as part of an investigation into anti-Semitic and hateful leaflets distributed in recent months in many regions of France, particularly in Normandy, the Rouen prosecutor’s office announced on Thursday. Three of them “appear sufficiently involved” and should be referred Friday morning, specifies the public prosecutor of Rouen, Frédéric Teillet, in a press release.
In May 2023, the Rouen public prosecutor’s office was “seized of various facts of dissemination of anti-Semitic and hateful leaflets, either by sending by electronic messaging, in particular to elected officials, or by distributing such leaflets in the mailboxes of individuals”, recalls the prosecutor.
Swastikas
“Given the content of these racist leaflets, bearing swastikas and extolling the supposed superiority of the “white man”, and the large number of sendings by electronic messaging, the national prosecutor’s office for the fight against online hatred had taken up this aspect of the investigation.
Investigations concerning the distribution of paper leaflets, led by the Rouen public prosecutor’s office, made it possible to identify “two alleged perpetrators of the distribution of leaflets in La Neuville-Chant d’Oisel” (Seine-Maritime) in May. last and degradation by racist “tags” in the same town between August 5 and 7. However, one of these two suspects, who reside in the Rouen region, recently went to the Pau region.
“An armband and a Nazi flag”
“After a new distribution of similar leaflets near the memorial of the Gurs internment camp (Pyrénées-Atlantiques)”, which houses more than a thousand Jewish graves, investigators carried out arrests on Wednesday. Three other suspects, including two residents of the Pau region, were placed in police custody, indicates the prosecution.
“During the various searches carried out, leaflets identical to those whose distribution is the subject of the various procedures, stencils corresponding to the tagged inscriptions, an armband and a Nazi flag, as well as some category C and D weapons were found” , details the Rouen prosecutor.
Sympathy with the far right
“The hearings made it possible to confirm the sympathy of those held in police custody with far-right and neo-Nazi ideology and their familiarity with the participatory democracy organization,” underlines the press release.
These leaflets distributed in several French regions (Brittany, Jura, surroundings of Dijon, etc.) refer to the “DemPart” website (for “Participatory Democracy”), which the courts had asked to block at the end of 2018 following multiple convictions on negationist, racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic remarks. The site is still visible in France because it is hosted in the United States.
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