French Imam Cleared of Radicalism Charges Over Social Media Posts

The imam had posted a message praising the action of the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in the context of the coronavirus health crisis. "To tell the truth, the Turks are lucky to have such a president. It’s a change from the French president who sold France’s sovereignty to the financial markets," he had written on his Facebook account. The accused thus highlighted the difficulty for the French to obtain masks while Turkey, at the same time, was distributing them free of charge to its citizens.

At the time, he had been searched as part of the offensive launched by the Executive against dozens of Muslim associations and heads of religious structures. The man was prosecuted without real evidence for having "diffusely supported theses inciting the commission of acts of terrorism and for having taken aggressive positions against the State and society, which could prove inciting with regard to people involved in Islamist activism".