The prosecution requested a ten-month suspended prison sentence and a 45,000 euro fine against Nice player Youcef Atal, tried on Monday for sharing a 35-second video calling for “a black day on the Jews”, but which he says is not not having watched the whole thing.
The judgment was reserved until January 3. “These are serious facts, which must not be trivialized. Sharing a video means taking credit for the comments and giving them visibility,” said Deputy Prosecutor Meggi Choutia. “I thought there was a message of peace for the people who were suffering in this war,” defended the 27-year-old Algerian international player at the Nice criminal court, assuring that he “shared this video without watching until the end”. “He sent a message of support to the Palestinians in Gaza. For him, this is peace, and he is not the only one,” said his lawyer, Me Antoine Vey.
“At no time, during these 35 seconds, is there any question of peace,” replied Ms. Choutia in her indictment, estimating that the suspended prison sentence could be “a warning sentence” which would encourage the player to think now before any publication. She also requested that the conviction be published for a month on the homepage of the player’s Instagram account.
Five days after the unprecedented Hamas attacks on October 7 and the start of Israel’s bombing of Gaza, and while he was in Algeria with his national team, Atal reposted on his Instagram account, followed by 3, 2 million people, the video of a preacher, Mahmoud Al Hasanat.
In this video, the preacher first evokes, moved to tears, the fate of the children of Gaza. Then he toughens his tone and calls on God to send “a dark day on the Jews.” “On Instagram, 35 seconds is a long time,” admitted Me Vey, assuring that the sharing of this video was certainly an ethical “fault” but not a criminal fault on the part of the player, prosecuted for provoking hatred for good reason. of religion.
Suspended for seven matches by the disciplinary committee of the Professional Football League (LFP), Youcef Atal has no longer worn the Nice jersey since this publication, but he has started in the three matches played since by the Algerian “Fennecs”. , many of whom gave him their support. The day after its publication, it was OGC Nice which warned him of the controversial nature of the remarks. Atal then deleted it, with an apology message written by his agent.
He had already issued a similar apology after “liking” a controversial video by Chechen MMA fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov, whose comments he had not tried to understand in Russian. He, who shares very little content outside of football, admitted that he had not sought to find out about Mahmoud Al Hasanat, a preacher who often makes very virulent comments.
“I am not anti-Semitic. I am neither against Jews nor against Christians, I have no hatred against anyone,” he insisted, recalling that unlike many athletes in the Arab world, he did not hesitate to play in Tel Aviv with Nice. His comments did not convince the civil parties, mainly Jewish organizations and the LFP.
“You have the right to express yourself, to display the Palestinian flag,” explained Mr. Serge Tavitian, lawyer for Licra (International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism): “But why not have condemned in the same movement October 7 and the rain of iron, fire, blood that is spreading in Gaza?” he said.
If the player remained calm and discreet, refusing to speak to the media, several women welcomed him to the court with “Algeria is with you” or “long live Palestine”, before taking on journalists who were questioning lawyers for the civil parties in the room of the lost steps.
