She left “relieved”.
This Thursday morning, at the end of her hearing by investigators from the Parisian judicial police, Émilie Gomis told AFP that she was “relieved” and deplored an “error” and a “clumsiness”.
The ex-basketball player - and now ex-ambassador of the Paris Olympics - was given a free hearing in Paris in an investigation into advocating terrorism.
Two days after the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7, she briefly republished on Instagram, before removing it, a message in which we saw maps of France from 1947, 1967 and 2023, on which a French flag was gradually replaced by the Israeli flag with this question: “What would you do in this situation?”
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A time passed unnoticed, its republication was later singled out, sparking criticism.
Émilie Gomis left her position as ambassador for the 2024 Paris Games on January 10 and apologized.
But, following a complaint from the National Office for Vigilance against Anti-Semitism (BNVCA), the national center for the fight against online hatred of the Paris prosecutor's office opened an investigation in mid-December for advocating terrorism.
At the end of her hearing Thursday morning by investigators from the Parisian judicial police, Gomis told AFP she was “relieved” and deplored an “error” and “clumsiness”.
The basketball player added that she “never wanted to incite hatred or anything”.
“I simply said that the timing of publication was indeed very bad, (…) after the atrocious attacks of October 7 which I strongly condemn.”
“The geopolitical situation leads citizens to express themselves in a certain way, we can no longer remain silent.
Despite my status and my functions, I paid for it,” she said, in tears.
“I should have been neutral”
“The sanction was clear against me, the relentlessness I think is enough now.
Now, the goal for me is to move forward and continue doing what I have always done,” added the 2012 Olympic vice-champion with the “Braqueuses”, nickname given to the French women’s team. at that time.
“It was never a question of being anti-Semitic or anything, I should have been neutral” conceded Émilie Gomis.
“Through my role” as Olympic ambassador, “we touched Paris 2024, I regret it,” she said.
“We consider that this summons was unnecessary, we are faced with a manifest disproportion,” added his lawyer, Me Vincent Brengarth.
“What more needs to be done?
Émilie Gomis withdrew her post, she apologized, explained, the publication suddenly resurfaced several weeks later, with the need to resign, then today a free hearing,” he criticized.