“He recognized the facts and regrets them”: a man tried on January 15 in Cahors for death threats against Rima Hassan

A man who had threatened to kill the Franco-Palestinian LFI MEP, Rima Hassan, was referred to the Cahors criminal court on January 15, we learned from the prosecution on Friday. Following a complaint from the MEP, “the individual accused was placed in police custody on October 14 on charges of threatening death or dangerous damage to property against an elected official,” said the public prosecutor of Cahors, Clara Ribeiro.

“He recognized the facts and regrets them,” she added. At the end of last week, Rima Hassan said on X that she was able to speak with this man who had threatened her, armed with a weapon, in a video on social networks. “During this call, I heard on the line from a father, a husband, a man with his sensitivities and his contradictions. A man who regretted his video, who seemed deeply disturbed to feel that I was listening despite his gesture and his positions,” declared the elected official.

The Paris prosecutor's office indicated to AFP on October 9 that an investigation had been opened by the national center for the fight against online hatred (PNLH) for death threats and provocation to commit a crime. She was then transferred to the Cahors public prosecutor's office, near the suspect's possible place of residence.

“A reaction from the judicial authority was essential so as not to give the feeling of impunity,” Rima Hassan’s lawyer, Vincent Brengarth, told AFP on Friday. “We will obviously continue to follow this procedure, taking into account in particular the terms of the apologies presented (...) and the concern for appeasement that he displayed,” he added.