A vegan who wrote on Facebook that she had “zero sympathy” for a butcher killed by an Islamic terrorist in France has been convicted under terror laws and given a suspended sentence.
The female activist’s opinion, expressed online, appears to have offended France’s butchers’ federation who made the legal compaint. She has now been handed a seven month suspended sentence after being arrested for remarks.
The vegan cheese maker, named as Myriam-Serge, was charged with condoning terrorism, which carries a maximum jail sentence of five years and a fine of 75,000 euros (£65,000).
“So then, you are shocked that a murderer is killed by a terrorist,” wrote Myriam on Facebook according to AFP. “Not me. I’ve got zero compassion for him, there’s some justice in it.”
Chief butcher Christian Medves was murdered by self-confessed Islamic State (ISIS) member Redouane Lakdim who killed three others including a senior police officer in Carcassonne and Trèbes, South West France. The Muslim extremist killer took hostages at a supermarket and demanded the release of fellow terrorist Salah Abdeslam, the role remaining survivior of the November 2015 terror attacks which killed 130.
Lakdim was shot and killed by police as they retook the supermarket.
The arrest of the vegan activist came just two days after another left-wing activist was convicted for appearing to say he was not upset by the death of hero policeman Arnaud Beltrame, who was killed in the same attack.
Stephane Poussier, who had stood for the French parliament in June, got a one-year suspended jail term expressing a controversial view about the terror attack on Twitter.
He had tweeted: “Every time a policeman gets hurt… I think of my friend Rémi Fraisse” – a young environmental activist killed by an officer in 2014 in southwest France.
“There, it’s a colonel, what a foot! Incidentally, one more Macron voter,” Mr. Poussier added on the social media site.
The court said that the tweets contained a “favourable or very favourable presentation” of the “consequences of a terrorist act” when considering if the left winger should be jailed.
Right-wingers have also been threatened by the law for posting controversial comments on social media in France.
Front National leader Marine Le Pen was earlier this month threatened with three years in jail for “distributing violent images” after drawing attention to Islamic State executions on Twitter.
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