Twelve months suspended prison sentence were required Monday, November 29 before the Saint-Etienne criminal court against two men accused of causing panic in June 2020 after shouting "
Allah Akbar
" in a hypermarket in this city.
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These two 38 and 52-year-old men who live in the Saint-Etienne region are being prosecuted for premeditated meeting violence resulting in a 30-day ITT at a store customer who broke his shoulder when he fell during the evacuation of the store. .
Sunday, June 7 at the end of the morning, the two Muslims belonging to the rigorist Tabligh movement, whose outfit and behavior had attracted the attention of the security service, had been wandering for about thirty minutes when the oldest knelt in a gone, reciting verses from the quran while raising his arms and shouting three times "
Allah Akbar
".
"It was an invocation not a war cry"
The scene sparked panic and staff urged the 150 or so people present to evacuate the store before calling the police. The alert was lifted a little later after the intervention of the demining service. “
We were in the middle of a discussion in the context of the Covid, rejoicing that churches in northern France are reopening their doors, my prayer in the store was an emotional reaction that came from the heart. I was in ecstasy, it was an invocation not a war cry
”, maintained at the bar the oldest, full beard, dressed in a djellaba and wearing a beige turban.
The representative of the prosecution reminded this fifty-year-old described as "
fine and intelligent
" assuring himself his defense, that he had already provoked a movement of panic and the evacuation of a church in Lyon in December 2016 during a funeral ceremony. “
Apparently that didn't serve as a lesson to you. We live under the regime of secularism which imposes to practice religion in private and not to proselytize in public space. I'm waiting for people to hear no more from you,
”thundered André Merle. "
You cause the opposite effect of that desired
", launched to the defendants Me Youcef Idchar, representative of one of the civil parties, describing the two men as "
provocateurs who do not
did not understand the gravity of their act ”.
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The same sentence was required against the two defendants.
The youngest, a self-employed delivery man, was sentenced to three months in prison for domestic violence in 2017. The judgment was reserved on December 20.