A former French political candidate, who stood for the far-left France Insoumise party (FI), was arrested by police after celebrating the death of Lt-Col Arnaud Beltrame who died as a result of wounds he received during the Trebes terror attack.
Stéphane Poussier, who ran for the party led by ultra-left former French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, wrote a post on Twitter claiming that the death of Beltrame had been a great thing, L’Express reports.
Not long after posting the tweet, Mr. Pouissier was arrested by police and could face charges of apologising for acts of terrorism and face a potential fine of €100,000 (£90,000) and up to seven years in prison.
The reaction from other members of the far-left FI was also highly negative, with the spokesman for the FI Manuel Bompard calling the remarks “shameful” and adding that they “have nothing to do with France Insoumise. We condemn them firmly.”
Later statements confirmed that the party had kicked out Poussier and the former candidate’s Twitter account was also shut down.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who ran on a far-left platform last year that would have introduced a 9o per cent income tax rate, called Lt-Col Beltrame a hero writing on Twitter: “A terrible honour: To give his life for his mission in the service of others. Beltrame, a hero of the human condition.”
Lt-Col Beltrame was the fourth victim of radical Islamic terror attacker Radouane Lakdim who took several people hostage last week in a supermarket and demanded the release of Bataclan massacre terrorist Salah Abdeslam in exchange.
The attack is the first major terrorist incident in France this year following a series of attacks last year, many of which, such as the Notre Dame attack, targetted police officers or members of the military out on patrol.
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