{"id":25410,"date":"2018-12-13T13:23:13","date_gmt":"2018-12-13T13:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=25410"},"modified":"2018-12-13T13:23:13","modified_gmt":"2018-12-13T13:23:13","slug":"france-opens-probe-into-racist-violence-by-far-right-activists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=25410","title":{"rendered":"France opens probe into racist violence by far-right activists"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Authorities in northern France<\/a> have launched an inquiry into allegations of violence and racism by members of a far-right group in the city of Lille, after an undercover Al Jazeera investigation exposed Generation Identity (GI) activists carrying out a racist attack on a teenage girl and admitting to a series of other assaults on Muslims and Arabs.<\/p>\n

Thierry Pouquet du Haut Jusse, Lille’s public prosecutor, announced the preliminary inquiry into the racist incidents shown in Al Jazeera’s documentary, Generation Hate<\/a>, late on Wednesday, according to the Voix du Nord<\/a> newspaper.<\/p>\n

The “people who appear in [Al Jazeera’s] report are going to have to explain themselves to police officers in order to ‘define the criminal offences which might lead to prosecutions'”, said Voix du Nord. <\/span><\/p>\n

The documentary, broadcast on Sunday, showed one GI activist punching<\/a> a teenage girl in the head several times in Lille’s city centre in January.<\/p>\n

The assailant, identified as Remi Falize, in a secretly filmed conversation, afterwards said: “Girl, or no girl, I couldn’t give a f**k. They are just Arabs.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n
\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

WATCH: France – Generation Identity, the far right and racist violence (3:05)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

The 30-year-old supermarket worker was later caught on camera saying that if he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, he would go to Lille’s Wazemmes market and “sow carnage” against Muslims.<\/span><\/p>\n

Falize made the remark at a private bar called the Citadelle, owned by Aurelien Verhassel, head of Lille’s branch of GI, one of Europe’s fastest growing and most prominent far-right movements. <\/span><\/p>\n

The anti-Muslim group advocates the defence of what it sees as the identity and culture of white Europeans from what it calls the threat of Islam and mass immigration. <\/span><\/p>\n

The group gained prominence when its activists occupied a mosque in western France in 2012 and attempted to block a snowy mountain pass on the French-Italian border last April. <\/span><\/p>\n

Secretly filmed footage from the Citadelle and other parts of Lille also show activists boasting about carrying out violent attacks and making Nazi salutes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Verhassel was also secretly filmed encouraging members of the Citadelle to violence. <\/span><\/p>\n

The opening of the inquiry on Wednesday came after letters of concern from Martine Aubry, the mayor of Lille, and Miche Lalande, prefect of the Nord County. <\/span><\/p>\n

Voix du Nord quoted Lalande saying he denounced “racist remarks and violent actions, proved or planned” relayed in the documentary. <\/span><\/p>\n

In a statement on Tuesday, Aubry called the comments from GI activists “unacceptable”. <\/span><\/p>\n

“This is entirely reprehensible and is in breach of the law. I have called upon the local authorities so we can find the appropriate measures to put a stop to the activities of these individuals and to shut down the Citadelle, which should have never opened in Lille,” she said. <\/span><\/p>\n

Verhassel, leader of the Citadelle, told the Voix du Nord on Tuesday there was “nothing against me” in the Al Jazeera documentary. <\/span><\/p>\n

Reiterating comments made Al Jazeera through his lawyer, Verhassel said the attacks and Nazi salutes filmed in the documentary “do not concern the Citadelle”.<\/span><\/p>\n

Al Jazeera’s investigation also revealed<\/a> close ties between GI and Marine Le Pen’s National Front, one of France’s largest political parties.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Authorities in northern France have launched an inquiry into allegations of violence and racism by members of a far-right group in the city of Lille, after an undercover Al Jazeera investigation exposed Generation Identity (GI) activists carrying out a racist attack on a teenage girl and admitting to a series of other assaults on Muslims…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":25411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}