13 folks went on trial Thursday in Paris accused of cyberbullying or demise threats in opposition to a teenage lady who posted on-line feedback important of Islam.
The case is the primary such trial underneath new jurisdiction France created this 12 months to prosecute crimes on-line, together with harassment and discrimination. Protection attorneys sought extra time for procedural causes, and the judges agreed to delay the proceedings till June 21-22.
The defendants, who’re between 18 and 35 years previous and from throughout France, resist two years in jail and about $37,000 in fines if convicted of on-line harassment. A number of the 13 are additionally accused of on-line demise threats, an offense that carries a most jail sentence of three years and high-quality as much as $55,000.
{The teenager} who was focused, who not too long ago turned 18 and identifies herself on-line as Mila, posted movies final 12 months on Instagram and TikTok savaging Islam and the Quran that have been extensively shared.
She obtained demise threats and different on-line abuse because of this, and was put underneath police safety and altered faculties. The French authorities’s equality minister on the time referred to as for harder measures in opposition to cyberbullying, and President Emmanuel Macron defended Mila’s “proper to blasphemy.”
Freedom of expression is taken into account a elementary proper in secular France, and blasphemy shouldn’t be a criminal offense. Some French Muslims really feel their nation unfairly stigmatizes their spiritual practices.
The trial focuses on responses to {the teenager}’s TikTok video in November. One of many defendants threatened to show her into one other Samuel Paty, a instructor who was beheaded outdoors Paris in October after exhibiting his class caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
After Mila’s preliminary video in January 2020, a authorized grievance was filed in opposition to her for incitement to racial hatred. The investigation was dropped for lack of proof.
