French Journalist Under Police Protection After Radical Islam Report Sparks Threats

According to Nicolas de Tavernost, chairman of the executive board of the M6 group, Ophélie Meunier, journalist and presenter of the news magazine, has been the target of threatening messages. The lawyer Amine Elbahi, a witness in the program, has also received death threats. "My phone number has been circulating on social networks, several calls for murder have been broadcast. I am threatened with beheading, slitting my throat, attacking me because I have spoken the truth openly and in particular on the inaction of the mayor of my town," the ENA graduate told BFMTV. His lawyer, Jean Tamalet, said that Amine Elbahi filed a complaint last Friday after receiving numerous threats on social networks, by SMS or on WhatsApp, as well as voice recordings "certified by a bailiff". The young man is notably described as a "kouffar" (infidel in Arabic, editor’s note) and "he is told that he will be beheaded," the lawyer specifies.

Amine Elbahi had alerted the prefecture of the North in October 2020 about an association in the city, "Ambitions and Initiatives for Success" (AAIR), which he suspected of providing "Koranic courses" under the guise of academic support. This association had received public subsidies, including municipal ones.