France: Muslim migrant accused of telling cop, ‘I’m a Muslim and I’m going to bury you, you son of a b***h’

He says he didn’t say it, and that what he meant to say was “I’m a Muslim, you’re going to hell.” Either way, his choice of words is interesting. Why does he think it necessary to bring up his Islamic faith? And why do authorities all over the West think that despite this evidence of how important his faith is to him, that his religion and its possible influence over his actions must be ignored?

“Under OQTF, he is being prosecuted for violence and insulting a police officer at the Sète administrative detention center,” translated from “Sous OQTF, il est poursuivi pour violence et outrage sur un policier au centre de rétention administrative de Sète,” by Fabien Arnaud, Midi Libre, November 10, 2024 (thanks to Medforth):

This Algerian national, domiciled in Alès, was tried on Wednesday, November 6 at the Montpellier criminal court, after violence committed against a police officer upon his arrival at the Sète administrative detention center on November 1. He was acquitted on the benefit of the doubt for the contempt charges.

It was incidentally that this Algerian national under obligation to leave the territory (OQTF) was arrested by the police in Alès. A bicycle delivery man, he jumped the queue for a BAC crew, who then checked his identity. Given his situation, the 30-year-old man was taken on 1 November to the administrative detention centre (CRA) in Sète, where things went badly from the moment he arrived. On Wednesday, November 6, this father of two very young children (19 months and 16 days) appeared before the Montpellier Criminal Court for violence and insult against a police officer, and for damage to the room where he had been placed.

“I’m a Muslim, you’re going to hell”

At the hearing, the presiding judge, Julie Marot, resumed the procedure in which the man was described as “excited, virulent, nervous” when he was taken into care at the CRA. “I was angry. I was working and they arrested me”, he justified himself. Then, while the officers were away, he tore down the wallpaper in the small room where he was placed, then insulted one of the police officers. According to the latter, the man allegedly said: “I’m a Muslim and I’m going to bury you, you son of a b…” But in the dock, the defendant disputes these statements. “I wanted to tell him ‘I’m a Muslim, you’re going to hell,’ because he had been unpleasant to me. But I couldn’t finish my sentence. He gave me a left-right.”

The police officer gives another version of events. He claims that the defendant “violently charged” him. The two men both ended up on the ground. Suffering from a sprained wrist, the civil servant benefits from “an ITT whose duration cannot be determined to date”, says his lawyer, who is requesting an advance payment of €1,000 and a referral for civil interest as compensation.

The defense questions the police officer’s version

The defendant’s counsel, for his part, questions the course of events, given his client’s build, which is much less imposing than that of the police officer. He points out that the defendant bears the mark of a blow to the temple, and questions the sentence of contempt quoted by the official: “Who heard it? It’s one’s word against another’s word.”

For the benefit of the doubt, the court acquitted the defendant for contempt, and sentenced the defendant for the acts of violence and vandalism to six months in prison with a committal order. The compensation of the police officer, who was a civil party, was the subject of a referral on civil interests.