Moroccan Man Jailed for 18 Months Over Terror Threats to French Police

Threatened with expulsion, a Moroccan pays the price for the remarks he had made during his transfer to the Metz detention center on December 26, 2020. According to the three police officers in charge of the escort that day, he would have said that France was incorrect towards him. His "rights were trampled during a check at the exit of a bar in Verdun," he would have let it be known, wishing to "see the police officers die" "in suffering". In case his expulsion was effective, he would have planned to "attack Frenchmen during his return to Morocco near the embassy or the consulate," he would have projected. With "his military training, he would use a sniper weapon to kill them," the police added.

After this incident, the thirty-year-old had been assigned to residence in Bar-le-Duc pending an appeal on his expulsion. On March 12, 2021, he was placed in pre-trial detention. On Tuesday, he appeared before the Bar-le-Duc criminal court, reports L’Est Républicain. At the bar, he denies having made the statements reported by the police to justice and claims not to have made death threats. According to him, it is only a "misinterpretation" of his words. "The police had tarnished his image," he acknowledged having said. "I said I would like them to know the suffering I felt. I want peace with everyone," he says.

The public prosecutor’s office requested three years in prison, including one year with probation and continued detention after reviewing a psychiatric report. The Moroccan is described as a defendant "with proven dangerousness" with a "risk of recurrence in case of frustration". Defending himself, the man reaffirms that he "has nothing against anyone", that he wants to "turn the page" and that "the portrait drawn of him does not correspond to his personality".

After a requalification of the facts of public apology for an act of terrorism into "repeated death threats committed on the grounds of race, ethnicity or religion", the court sentenced the defendant to 28 months in prison, including 10 months with probation for two years, an obligation to work, care, a ban on possessing a weapon, contacting his victims and continued detention. He is also required to pay 300 € in damages to a police officer who had joined the civil party for moral prejudice.