Apr 3, 10:33 AM
French MEP Rima Hassan Placed in Police Custody Over Terrorism Apology Investigation
The France Unbowed lawmaker is being questioned over a social media post expressing solidarity with a convicted Japanese terrorist.
Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament from the hard-left France Unbowed party, was placed in police custody in Paris on Thursday as part of an investigation into an alleged apology for terrorism, her office confirmed.
The investigation concerns a social media post Hassan published last week expressing solidarity with Kōzō Okamoto, a Japanese terrorist convicted for an attack that killed 26 people at Ben Gurion International Airport in 1972.
Hassan's team argued that the temporary custody violates the lawmaker's parliamentary immunity as an MEP. A spokesperson for the European Parliament declined to comment on ongoing proceedings but confirmed that the Parliament is in contact with national authorities, the member, and her political group.
French far-right lawmaker Matthias Renault, who alerted French prosecutors to Hassan's post last week, welcomed the development, writing on social media that it marked the beginning of the end of impunity for the France Unbowed lawmaker.
Hassan, who was born stateless in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, is one of France's most visible pro-Palestinian activists and has repeatedly courted controversy over her stance on Israel. Her continued description of Hamas's October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel as legitimate from the perspective of international law has drawn fury from much of France's political establishment, though she has stated that the terror group's actions were morally unacceptable.
