From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Top far-left French MP summoned by police over suspected justification of terrorism for Hamas comments
The leader of far-left MPs in the French parliament is summoned for questioning by police in an investigation into suspected justification of terrorism over comments on the October 7 onslaught by Hamas.
Mathilde Panot heads the lower house of parliament faction of the France Unbowed (LFI) party, which has been repeatedly accused by opponents of failing to clearly condemn the attack by Hamas.
The LFI — which is now France’s strongest political force on the left — has in turn lashed out at what it sees as an erosion of free speech and accused Israel of committing “genocide” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Panot says it is the first time in the history of modern France that a head of a parliamentary faction “was summoned on such serious grounds.”
“I am warning about this serious exploitation of justice aimed at suppressing political expression,” she says.
On October 7, the LFI group in parliament published a text which sparked controversy because it described the Hamas attack as “an armed offensive by Palestinian forces” that occurred “in a context of intensification of the Israeli occupation policy.”
The LFI’s firebrand figurehead and former presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon describe the summons as an “unprecedented event in the history of our democracy,” accusing the authorities of “protecting a genocide.”
