Alexis Delafontaine with AFP / Photo credit: XOSE BOUZAS / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP
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7:23 p.m., April 23, 2024
The leader of the rebellious deputies Mathilde Panot announced on Tuesday that she had been summoned by the police as part of an investigation for “apology of terrorism” opened following a press release from the parliamentary group published on October 7, the day of unprecedented attack carried out by Hamas against Israel.
“This is the first time in the history of the Fifth Republic that a president of an opposition group in the National Assembly has been summoned for such a serious reason,” assured the elected official in a press release. On October 7, the LFI group published a text which sparked controversy, because it particularly compared the Hamas attack, described as “an armed offensive by Palestinian forces” and “the intensification of the occupation policy Israeli” in the Palestinian territories.
Mélenchon denounces a desire to “protect a genocide” in Gaza
The summons by the police of Mathilde Panot for advocating terrorism is an “unprecedented event in the history of our democracy” which shows a desire to “protect a genocide” in Gaza, the leader of La France Insoumise (LFI) Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
As the bans on conferences and the convictions of trade unionists were carried out without much solidarity, as certain media focused their attacks on us without opposition, the far-right is moving forward. Associations friendly to Netanyahu dare to file a complaint against… pic.twitter.com/rdqQ7ItVRu
— Jean-Luc Mélenchon (@JLMelenchon) April 23, 2024
“The entire anti-genocide political and intellectual sphere is threatened. An unprecedented event in the history of our democracy. We now know who is threatening freedom of conscience and why: protecting a genocide!”, he said on X after the announcement of the summons by the police of the head of the LFI deputies, Mathilde Panot.
“I believe I have nothing to reproach myself for”
This news comes four days after the candidate for the European elections Rima Hassan, seventh on Manon Aubry’s rebellious list, also announced her summons by the judicial police for “apology of terrorism”. “I believe I have nothing to reproach myself for, having always expressed myself critically both towards Hamas and its terrorist modus operandi, but also towards Israel,” she reacted to AFP on Friday.
The rebels denounce an instrumentalization of justice, ensuring that they are made to pay for their support for the Palestinians and their use of the term “genocide” to describe the situation in Gaza. Last week, two conferences by Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the situation in the Middle East were canceled in Lille, first at the university then in a private room. “An abuse of power of a banana republic,” castigated the leader of the Insoumis.