The imam of the Beaucaire mosque (Gard) was sentenced Thursday to 12 months in prison by the Nîmes Court of Appeal. He was prosecuted for having published on Facebook on October 12 comments taken from a hadith (a word attributed to Muhammad and recorded in Islamic tradition) calling for “fighting” and “killing” Jews.
This publication was posted exactly five days after the Hamas attack on Israeli soil from the Gaza Strip which it controls. The court of appeal increased the sentence handed down at first instance, since his sentence was increased from eight to 12 month in prison, still fully accompanied by a probationary suspension for two years. His ban from exercising the function of imam went from one to two years, according to the judgment consulted by AFP. The religious was arrested at the end of October at Marseille Marignane airport, returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca, then placed in police custody, after denunciation by the prefect of Gard, Jérôme Bonet.