Paris Prosecutor Appeals Acquittal in High-Profile Cyberbullying Case Against Ex-Charlie Hebdo Journalist

Idriss Sihamedi has not completely escaped the case. The defendant was prosecuted for cyberbullying against Zineb El Rhazoui, a former Charlie Hebdo journalist and anti-Islamist activist. Last Friday, the Paris Criminal Court recognized the materiality of the cyberbullying, but ruled that there was "no proof of the actual deterioration of Zineb El Rhazoui’s living conditions". As a result, the founder of the NGO BarakaCity was acquitted. On Tuesday, the Paris prosecutor’s office appealed this decision, reports Le Parisien.

"In matters of harassment, the repeated behaviors must have had a certain and direct impact on the life of others," the president of the court had recalled. In its verdict, the magistrate also mentioned one of the correspondences exchanged between the two protagonists. In this correspondence, the former Charlie Hebdo journalist "said that she was not at all destabilized by the insults and invectives addressed to her".

Idriss Sihamedi is also summoned to appear before the Evry court for similar acts on February 12. This time, it is an RMC radio commentator, Zohra Bitan, who filed a complaint against him after the publication of 120 tweets on his Twitter account.