Rima Hassan, LFI candidate for the European elections, summoned by the police for advocating terrorism

2024-04-19 14:49:46
Rima Hassan, candidate for the European elections on the list of La France insoumise, during a meeting in Montpellier, April 14, 2024. PASCAL GUYOT / AFP

After the serial cancellations of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s conferences, the ban on a conference on Palestine by La France insoumise in Lille, Thursday April 18, here is Rima Hassan, candidate in seventh position on the movement’s European list, summoned by the police for advocating terrorism.

Read the portrait | Article reserved for our subscribers Rima Hassan, Palestine close to the heart

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In a letter received on Friday April 19, the Franco-Palestinian lawyer found herself summoned on April 30 “in order to be heard freely on facts of public apology for an act of terrorism, committed by means of an online public communication service”. Facts that occurred, according to the police, between November 5 and December 1, 2023, i.e. before she was a candidate on the LFI list.

For his lawyer, Vincent Brengarth, this summons, which The world was able to consult, “ is truly astonishing. It criminalizes the expressions of Rima Hassan warning of the urgency of the situation in Gaza. Everyone sees clearly that she intervenes in the middle of the electoral campaign and that she aims to weaken Rima Hassan, in a context of multiple pressures”. Contacted, the prosecution did not respond to our questions.

“Confident and ready to cooperate”

In a text sent to MondeRima Hassan se dit “serene, confident and ready to cooperate fully with the agents of the judicial police, in which [elle a] full confidence.

“I take this opportunity to express my concern about the ambient climate which weighs on militant and political voices on the Palestinian subject,” continues the LFI candidate, condemning “political pressures aimed at compromising [sa] freedom of expression. These pressures threaten our freedoms and the state of our democracy and especially occur in the context of the European elections, a crucial political moment for the future of the French people.”

In November, the Palestinian rights activist notably qualified israeli army army “the most immoral in the world”above a photo of Israeli missiles apparently dedicated to him, on X.

Read the column | Article reserved for our subscribers Rima Hassan, the choice of insubordination

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November 5, the one who has long been a supporter of a binational state wrote Also : “From the river to the sea. We want to free ALL Palestinians. Those in the camps, those in Gaza, those in Jerusalem, those in the West Bank, those in Israel and all those in the diaspora. It is only under this condition that we can speak of a Palestinian state, of a Palestinian people. Pretending to offer a Palestinian state in an enclave which will in fact prevent all Palestinians from uniting and determining their common destiny is, I tell you in advance, creating Gaza 2.” While having recognized the “terrorist modus operandi” of Hamas and its qualification as a terrorist group by the European Union, the candidate for the European elections, the target of death threats, is the focus of criticism from LFI’s political adversaries, who accuse her of fueling hatred of Israel.