Environmental activist Camille Étienne files a complaint against the far-right site “Free Network” after death threats

2024-07-23 14:43:32

The latest victim of the “Free Network” protests. Environmental activist Camille Étienne filed a complaint against the ultra-right site, after being targeted by death threats, along with many other people, journalists and political representatives. “They won’t hate me or fear me, I don’t have their time. Instead: summons to court. Ignorance is over,” he wrote in a post on his Instagram account, justifying his decision.

“I’m filing a charge somewhere far away Free networking who chose me, along with other whistleblowers, independent writers, political leaders… Like a target to be shot in the sky », wrote the 26-year-old activist, who has made a strong stand against the National Rally in recent weeks. “That’s still a far right,” he urged.

The activist is among many people targeted by the far-right site, founded in 2015 and hosted in Russia, which made news earlier this month after calls to “eliminate” lawyers who wrote a book against the national assembly between two rounds of early legislative elections. The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into these threats. Left-wing political figures, including Manuel Bompard and Alexis Corbière, are also on these target lists, while journalists have also been targeted in recent months.

Elections “unleash what’s left of festering hatred”

“I know my address is active on WhatsApp circles, I have already received a threatening letter at my home, posted on my door,” wrote Camille Étienne, indicating that he had the train left earlier. Although he has “a habit of not publicly threatening” he accepts, this time he took the hole “so that we can once again see together the ruins of ideas which can kill.”

“They have crossed the red line of what is acceptable and today sit in our institutions,” added the activist, as the recent early legislative elections, which saw the National Rally achieve historic success. an account, “released what’s in it. resentment’.

Remembering that “the website and its author seem to be hosted in Russia”, which makes legal victory “difficult”, however he announced that in the event of success, the reward received from a possible conviction will be donated “to the warring parties. against fascism and for democracy”, also emphasized taking that according to the NGO Global Witness, “a climate activist is killed every two days”.

Like those who threaten him, the militant, who is traveling openly, also took a video of himself in the middle of mountain roads, saying in front of the camera: “People are not happy with what is right. really, if you want to come pick me up, I hope so. you have good legs, because we will have to climb to the top of one of the highest mountains in all of Slovenia! “. “See you in court,” he finished, wrapped in an anorak.

Dozens of other complaints

The environmental activist is not the only one to take legal action among the people targeted by the “Free Network”. Also, dozens of complaints have been filed by journalists and associations with the Paris prosecutor, AFP learned last week from the accusers.

Some 180 journalists, elected officials and businessmen signed an article in the newspaper in October Human beings asking the government to “protect, in all media, the free exercise of their mission”. Soon after, the far-right site published a “list of candidates for the bullet in the sky”, containing the names of the signatures. About forty complaints have already been filed and about thirty more are to be filed, according to a joint press release from the SNJ-CGT-CFDT-FO unions, which claims that “these facts are not go without punishment”. The NGO Reporters Without Borders also filed a complaint, as did several groups and networks of information professionals, including Forbidden Stories.

Regarding the lawyers targeted, Me Yassine Bouzrou, responsible for many suspicious cases in recent years, including the cases of Adama Traoré, Benjamin Griveaux, and Paul Pobga, was charged in early July for “criminal conspiracy with the intention to do. terrorist acts” and “offence to the commission of terrorist acts”, according to our statement. Communist senator Ian Brossat, who is also placed “on the list of people to be removed”, has also indicated to file a lawsuit on July 9.