Ten months suspended prison sentence was required Friday, December 18 in Paris against Idriss Sihamedi, the founder of the BarakaCity association recently dissolved by the government, who was on trial for the online harassment of the former Charlie Hebdo journalist, Zineb El Rhazoui.
The judgment will be pronounced on January 15.
Read also: The founder of BarakaCity again in police custody, accused of cyberstalking
Idriss Sihamedi, whose real name is Driss Yemmou, appeared to have published on his Twitter account, between September 23 and 30, more than 80 messages targeting the journalist, known for her fight against Islamism.
Zineb El Rhazoui did not attend the hearing.
The tweets revealed many elements of her private life, including her husband's name, occupation and photo, or the first letter of her 4-year-old daughter's first name.
Presenting himself as “
a whistleblower
”, Driss Yemmou explained to the court that his intention was to launch “
an adversarial debate
”.
“
I have information that no one has.
I must share them
”, justified the defendant, whose association BarakaCity was dissolved at the end of October for its supposed proximity to radical Islam.
The incriminated tweets contained "
neither threats nor insults
", noted the court, but almost all denounced a woman "
imbued with her person
", her "
greed
", her "
disconcerting deceit
", nicknamed her "
the greatest cowardice of this country
”.
Yemmou's messages, often accompanied by the hashtag #BalanceZinebElRhazoui, were picked up en masse and one of her 41,000 subscribers published the private address of Ms. El Rhazoui who has been living under police protection since the January 2015 attacks.
“
Mr. Yemmou attacked Zineb because she is all he fights, an apostate from Islam.
It is the absolute horror for the Islamists
”, pleaded the lawyer of the journalist, Me Thibault de Montbrial.
“
By attacking her, Driss Yemmou knew he was going to unleash a pack without ignoring that maybe someone could say: 'we are going to do it'
”, he added.
For Me Montbrial, his client was "
terrified
" by a campaign which is not unlike that which led to the beheading of Samuel Paty.
Yemmou was in "
an opportunistic provocation strategy
," said the prosecutor for her part.
The offending tweets targeted "
a person and not an idea
".
The defendant's lawyers pleaded for their release, believing that cyber-harassment was not proven.
"
We cannot characterize this offense
", they said, defending "
freedom of expression
", which "
sometimes can offend
".
Yemmmou is to be tried for similar facts in February in Evry, for sending more than a hundred tweets to RMC columnist Zohra Bitan.
