France
warns Algeria against escalation of influencers showdown
Paris (AFP)
– France threatened on Friday to "retaliate" if Algeria escalates a
diplomatic row that has flared up over the arrests of Algerian social media
influencers accused of inciting violence.
Issued on:
10/01/2025 - 21:40
Tensions
between France and its former colony mounted after Algeria on Thursday sent
back a suspect who had been arrested and expelled for a video posted on TikTok.
They had
already heated up over the detention in Algerian of a leading Franco-Algerian
writer.
France's
interior minister Bruno Retailleau on Friday accused Algeria of trying to
humiliate France over the writer.
Foreign
Minister Jean-Noel Barrot threatened restrictions to visas or development aid,
telling LCI television that France would have "no option but to
retaliate" if "the Algerians continue to escalate" the row.
TikTok
influencers arrested
Former prime
minister Gabriel Attal said that France should cancel a 1968 accord with
Algeria that gives Algerians special rights to live and work in France because
of the dispute over what he called "preachers of hate".
Four
influencers supportive of Algerian authorities have been arrested in recent
days over videos in which they are accused of calling for violence in France.
Algeria
meanwhile has been holding French-Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal on national
security charges.
"Algeria
is seeking to humiliate France," Interior Minister Retailleau said on a
visit to the western city of Nantes, citing the case of the dual-national
writer.
"Can a
great country, a great people allow itself to keep in detention for the wrong
reasons someone who is old and sick?"
Regarding
the influencers, he said it was "out of the question to give a free pass
to these individuals who spread hatred and anti-Semitism.
"I
think we have reached an extremely worrying threshold with Algeria," he
added. France "cannot tolerate" an "unacceptable
situation".
One of those
arrested is "Doualemn", a 59-year-old influencer detained in the
southern city of Montpellier after a video posted on TikTok.
He was sent
by plane to Algeria on Thursday, according to his lawyer, but was sent back to
France the same evening as Algeria refused to let the influencer enter.
Foreign
Minister Barrot said he was "astounded" that Algerian authorities
"refused to take back one of their nationals".
He said
France could take action on visas, development aid or "a number of other
areas of cooperation".
On Thursday,
Sofia Benlemmane, a Franco-Algerian woman in her fifties, was also arrested,
Lyon prosecutors said.
Followed by
more than 300,000 people, she is accused of spreading hate messages and threats
against internet users and opponents of the Algerian authorities, as well as
insulting statements about France.
Terror-incitement
charges
Another
suspect, Youcef A., 25, known as "Zazou Youssef" on TikTok, will be
tried on February 24 on charges of justifying terrorism. He was arrested in
Brest on January 3. He faces seven years in prison if convicted.
"Imad
Tintin", 31, was taken into police custody on Saturday in Grenoble for a
video, since removed, in which he called for "burning alive, killing and
raping on French soil". He will be tried on March 5 for incitement to acts
of terrorism.
Two other
Tiktokers with the user names "Abdesslam Bazooka" and
"Laksas06" are also being investigated by French authorities.
Algeria won
independence from France in 1962 after a bitter seven-year war.
Tensions
have surged since President Emmanuel Macron last year emphasised French support
for Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara. Algeria
backs Western Sahara pro-independence rebels.
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