Ten months suspended prison sentence for Internet user who joked about the death of an Israeli baby
A 37-year-old woman was sentenced Wednesday in Paris to ten months in prison for “apology of terrorism”, after an online video in which she joked about the death of an Israeli baby in connection with the attack on Hamas.
Through the video, published at the beginning of November on her Instagram account, Warda A. “made a favorable judgment” on the “events of a terrorist nature” and on their perpetrators, considered the criminal court. The sentence is consistent with that requested by the prosecution on November 22.
“We will obviously appeal” of this decision, commented the defendant’s lawyer, Me Ilyacine Maallaoui. “And if we have to go to the Court of Cassation, or even to European authorities, we will”he added.
In the disputed video, the thirty-year-old commented on information reported by an Israeli rescuer, according to which a baby had been placed in an oven by Hamas members during the October 7 attack on Israeli soil. This account, however, has not been confirmed by Israeli authorities. “Every time I come across the story of the baby who was put in the oven, I wonder if they added salt, pepper (…), thyme ? If they reverted it to what? »launched Warda A. in his video, who has some nine thousand followers.
During her trial, she admitted to having expressed herself with “a bit of irony” and have been “clumsy”but had refuted any intention of ” provocation “. She explained that she did not believe that a baby could have been placed in an oven, and that she had only wanted to denounce a “propaganda” and an “media manipulation”.
In addition to her prison sentence, accompanied by a probationary suspension of twenty-four months, the defendant will have to follow a “citizenship course” to soak up the “values of the Republic”, the court decided. She will also have to pay 1,000 euros in compensation and 500 euros in procedural costs to each of the six associations fighting against racism and anti-Semitism for which the court has decided to form a civil party.