The defender of Nice and the Algerian national team Youcef Atal has been arrested: he is accused of inciting racial hatred for religious reasons.
The arrest took place on Thursday evening; the investigation began last October 16, when Atal shared on his Instagram account the video of a preacher who, taking a position in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, incited violence against Jews. In the video, preserved by the Representative Council of the Jewish Institutions of France (Crif), the preacher said he was moved by the fate of civilians in Gaza and hoped for the advent of “a black day for the Jews”, so that they could no longer “raise their flag over Gaza.”
The twenty-seven-year-old footballer then promptly deleted the video message and apologised, but the French prosecutor’s office, upon input from the prefect and the mayor of Nice, opened an investigation for “apologia of terrorism” and “incitement to hatred and violence against basis of a specific religion”.
Having returned from retirement with his national team, Atal was suspended indefinitely by the Ligue1 club pending knowledge of any envisaged judicial and sporting sanctions, while the disciplinary commission of the French professional league imposed a seven-match ban on him. The apologies, evidently, were not enough: yesterday evening the precautionary custody order also arrived, and the footballer is therefore in custody.
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