PARIS, Dec. 1 Several hundred far-right supporters The movement held a rally in Paris in memory of a teenager killed during a stabbing on November 18, the correspondent reports.
Those who wanted to honor the memory of the murdered 16-year-old Tom began to flock to the Pantheon Square, despite the fact that the Prefecture of Paris had previously announced a ban on the action. However, at the last moment, the Paris administrative court overturned the order of Prefect Laurent Nunez, citing a violation of the “right to manifest” and “the absence of objective reasons for the ban.” At 8 pm there were several hundred people in the square.
As one of the activists, a member of the association “Les Natifs” that organized the action, Antoine, said, the purpose of the demonstration is to point out that Tom’s death is not an isolated incident. “This is a symbol of what is increasingly happening in France: a significant increase in the number of acts of violence that remain unpunished. The main reason for this, we believe, is the permissiveness of the judicial system. Judges in France are politicized; they often hand down weak sentences or completely forgive certain offenses, even rape. We We believe that people capable of this should be punished,” the activist said.
Protest participants chant the slogan: “Justice for Tom!” and burned fires.
There are many police squads on duty around the square. The protest took place peacefully.
On Friday, authorities also allowed similar, previously prohibited rallies to take place in Toulouse and Valence.
After the death of a teenager on the night of November 18-19 as a result of a stabbing during a holiday, riots broke out in the city of Romanes-sur-Isère in southeastern France. It was reported that far-right activists took to the streets of the city demanding justice for the deceased teenager, some set fire to containers, and 20 people were detained.
Later, six people were sentenced to real prison terms of six to ten months for “participation in a group organizing violence and pogroms.” Five more were sentenced for violence against police officers.
Earlier, the head of the French Ministry of Internal Affairs, Gerald Darmanin, ordered a ban on any far-right protests amid unrest after the murder of a teenager. He said that at the moment the French authorities are monitoring 1,300 radicals of far-right ideology who are on the so-called list S (fiche S) — a list of persons posing a threat to state security.