Following the altercation that went viral between a man and two veiled teenage girls on April 12 in Montpellier, the public prosecutor issued a press release this Friday in which he announced that the man appearing in the video will be prosecuted for “willful violence “.
It all started with a video, in which the respondent attacks two young girls wearing the veil.
In the extract, we can clearly see the assailant trying to tear off the scarf of one, after having managed to remove that of the other.
According to the press release dated April 15 from Fabrice Belargent, public prosecutor of Montpellier (Hérault), the two minor teenagers went to a police station in the city, the very evening of their attack, in order to file a complaint against the man, “stating that he had been the subject of racist insults”.
A hearing scheduled soon
The day after the attack, it was the man appearing in the video who presented himself to the Montpellier police station, claiming to have been the subject of homophobic insults from the two teenagers. “He also declared himself to be in danger, elements allowing him to be identified being broadcast on social networks since the day before”, reports the public prosecutor in the press release. The man in his sixties according to France 3 Occitanie, was placed in police custody. The investigators defined as “contradictory” the supported versions.
The public prosecutor denied the existence of an immediate appearance procedure, relayed by certain media: “The defendant is presented today to the prosecution so that a later hearing date is notified to him”, perhaps we read on the press release of April 15.
The assailant also prosecuted for “public insults”
The prosecution has initiated several proceedings against the sexagenarian, including one for “intentional violence not resulting in incapacity for work exceeding eight days and committed because of the true or supposed membership of the victims to a religion”. The accused was also implicated for “public insults on the grounds of religion”.
The prosecution announced in its press release the opening of a parallel investigation, in order to find on the one hand those responsible for the illegal dissemination of the video of the Islamophobic attack. Internet users who have disclosed information that could lead to harassment of the sixty-something are also targeted by this investigation.