Part of the Paty family said they were “shocked” by the revelations made about the use of the sums collected thanks to the Marianne Fund.
by IM with AFP
© ALAIN JOCARD / AFP
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ATfter the assassination of Samuel Paty, a history and geography professor who was beheaded on October 16, 2020 by a radicalized Islamist, a fund against separatism, called the Marianne Fund, was created. The magazine Marianne and France 2 investigated the use of the funds collected and noted questionable management. Part of the murdered professor’s family reacted forcefully on Tuesday, in a press release, saying they were “particularly shocked by the recent revelations of France 2, concerning the questionable use of grants dedicated to the Marianne Fund […], and the lack of control over the use of these subsidies”. “The name of Samuel Paty can in no way and in no way be the instrument of such acts”, she adds.
READ ALSOSecularism: “The France of teachers is afraid” According to the press release, Virginie Le Roy, lawyer for part of the family, wrote to Marlène Schiappa, Secretary of State for the Social and Solidarity Economy and Associative Life, and to Sonia Backes, Secretary of State in charge of Citizenship, “to share with them his various questions”.
The list of beneficiaries kept secret
Marlène Schiappa, then Minister Delegate for Citizenship, announced in April 2021 the launch of a “Marianne fund for the Republic”, of 2.5 million euros, aimed at “financing people and associations who will make speeches to promote the values of the Republic and to fight against separatist discourse, in particular on social networks and online platforms”.
A joint investigation of the weekly Marianne and France 2 broadcast on March 29 described a management of the money of this fund which would be opaque, with a list of beneficiaries kept secret.
According to the investigation, the association, which would be its main beneficiary, the Union of Physical Education and Military Preparation Societies (USEPPM), would have used this fund for a website and publications on social networks very little followed, but also and above all to pay two of its ex-leaders. This would contradict the statutes of this association, according to the lawyer for its new management, Mr.e Cyril Fergon, contacted by AFP.
READ ALSO“I’m going to make you a Samuel Paty”: a teacher threatened by a high school student in GirondeOne of these two ex-leaders, Mohamed Sifaoui, director of communication for the SCO football club in Angers, but also a political refugee journalist in France after escaping four attacks in Algeria in the 1990s, announced on Twitter legal proceedings against all those who defame him. The State Secretariat for Citizenship told AFP on March 29 that it had asked the General Inspectorate of Administration for an audit on the issue.
Asked by AFP, the Paris prosecutor’s office indicated that a report under article 40 of the code of criminal procedure by Christian Gravel, president of the Interministerial Committee for the Prevention of Delinquency and Radicalization (CIPDR), was to analysis.