LYON: According to officials, a Franco-Algerian influencer who was detained during an inquiry into hate videos on the internet will go on trial in March after appearing before French prosecutors on Saturday. The arrests of multiple Algerian social media personalities on charges of inciting violence have sparked a diplomatic spat between France and Algeria.
On Thursday, Sofia Benlemmane, a fifty-year-old Franco-Algerian woman, was taken into custody.
More than 300,000 people follow her on Facebook and TikTok, where she is accused of making offensive remarks against France and spreading hateful threats and messages against Internet users and those who oppose the Algerian government.
According to the office of the public prosecutor, she was mandated to appear before a criminal court on March 18. Incitement to commit a crime, death threats, and “public insult based on origin, ethnicity, nation, race, or religion” are among the charges against her. The blogger had said, “I hope you get killed, I hope they kill you,” in a September live broadcast, insulting a woman. Frederic Lalliard, her attorney, contended that although Benlemmane’s remarks “may irritate or shock,” she had not committed any crimes.
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