MEP taken into police custody for “justifying terrorism”. | EUROtoday

French-Palestinian MEP Rima Hassan has been quickly taken into police custody for “justifying terrorism,” in keeping with the Paris prosecutor’s workplace. Hassan was launched from police custody on Thursday night and acquired a court docket summons for July seventh for “justification of terrorism committed online,” the Paris public prosecutor’s workplace stated. A small quantity of artificial medication was additionally present in Hassan’s bag, in keeping with sources near the case.

As the newspaper “Le Parisien” reviews, Hassan was taken into police custody as a part of an investigation right into a publish on the web service X. The article is alleged to have referred to one of many perpetrators of an assault on Tel Aviv airport in 1972, Kozo Okamoto. The publish has now been deleted.

Okamoto was the one survivor among the many three perpetrators of the May 30, 1972 assault at Israel’s Tel Aviv airport, wherein 26 folks have been killed. He was a member of the left-wing extremist Japanese Red Army.

At the tip of March, the deputy of the right-wing populist Rassemblement National (RN), Matthias Renault, stated that he had reported Hassan’s contribution to Okamoto to the Paris public prosecutor’s workplace. According to Renault’s report, the publish learn: “Kozo Okamoto: I dedicated my youth to the Palestinian cause. As long as oppression exists, resistance will be not only a right but a duty.” Renault referred to as on Thursday for Hassan’s parliamentary immunity to be lifted.

The 33-year-old lawyer Hassan has been the goal of a judicial investigation in France because the finish of 2023 for justifying terrorism. Immediately after the most important assault by the novel Islamic Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, which left greater than 1,200 lifeless, the MEP made controversial statements that have been seen as an expression of assist for Hamas. She was subsequently summoned by the police in spring 2024.

According to the Paris prosecutor’s workplace, substances that seemed to be cannabidiol (CBD) and 3MMC have been additionally discovered throughout a search of the MEP’s private belongings on Thursday. 3MMC is an artificial drug. These discoveries “will be the subject of a separate trial,” the general public prosecutor’s workplace stated.

When she was launched from police custody, Hassan introduced a press convention to journalists on Friday. She later defined on the web service X: “Based on illegal leaks, I had to endure accusations that I was in possession of several drugs.” These accusations are “completely false.” Only the presence of CBD might be detected, “which is completely legal”.

Hassan’s setting sharply criticized the actions of the regulation enforcement authorities. “This is a new escalation in judicial harassment aimed at silencing voices defending the rights of the Palestinian people,” stated pro-Palestinian MEPs. The left-wing populist social gathering chief Jean-Luc Mélenchon spoke of a “political police”.