BarakaCity: Idriss Sihamedi will be tried in Paris for cyberbullying and public insult

The president of the Muslim NGO BarakaCity, Idriss Sihamedi, will be tried twice by the Paris Criminal Court.

Suspected of online harassment towards a former Charlie Hebdo journalist, Zineb El Rhazoui, he will appear for cyberstalking in December and for public insult in January, indicates the Paris prosecutor's office on Friday.

Placed in police custody on October 21, a week after being arrested for similar facts, Sihamedi was presented to a magistrate "in order to be given a summons by minutes before the criminal court for the count of harassment" online .

The Paris public prosecutor's office has requested that he be placed under judicial supervision for these facts, which must be tried on December 18.

Idriss Sihamedi was also "the subject of a summons by a judicial police officer of the head of public insult because of origin, ethnicity, nation, race or religion by word, writing, image or means of communication to the public by electronic means, ”added the Paris prosecutor's office.

The hearing in front of the press chamber is scheduled for January.

Its association targeted by a dissolution procedure

The president of the charity, regularly accused of proximity to political Islam and targeted by a dissolution procedure, presented himself to the Paris judicial police on Wednesday morning to be heard as part of an investigation by the Paris prosecutor's office after the complaint of Zineb El Rhazoui, ex-collaborator of the satirical newspaper.

Sihamedi's lawyer blasted "the temporal nature of this custody, which did not allow the president to usefully prepare the observations in response to the dissolution of BarakaCity", initiated Tuesday evening by the government.

"For the rest, I will not comment further on this affair: at the moment the person of Mr. Sihamedi is not the most important, it is the future of an association which helps two million underprivileged people in the world, ”added Me Samim Bolaki.

Also summoned to the Evry court on December 4

Last week, Idriss Sihamedi was taken into police custody in Essonne as part of another online harassment investigation, this time after the September 18 complaint from RMC radio columnist Zohra Bitan.

She reported "120 defamatory tweets" posted on her Twitter account by Sihamedi.

Newsletter - Most of the news

Every morning, the news seen by Le Parisien

I'm registering

Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to enable you to receive our news and commercial offers.

Learn more

The latter had taken to task the two women, to whom he blames their criticisms of Islam in the media.

In the Zohra Bitan case, he was released under judicial supervision on October 15 and is summoned to the Evry Criminal Court on December 4.