Radical left MEPs trial Rima Hassan begins

O trial of the French radical left MEP Rima Hassan, accused of apology of terrorism on social networks, began today in Paris, in a climate of tension and exchange of offenses between lawyers.

Hassan, of Palestinian and anti-Israel origin, opted for silence at the first hearing, marked by insults and various incidents between his lawyer, Vincent Brengarth, and the representatives of the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA), Galina Elbaz, and the Jewish Organization of France (OJF), Julien Bensimon.

After Elbaz accused Brengarth of presenting an argument with “anti-Semitic airs”, the lawyer abandoned the courtroom, followed by his client for a few minutes.

The defence had argued, among other things, that the organisations forming part of the prosecution encourage and defend the policy of the State of Israel, while disqualifying the views on Palestine of the Party Member of the “Unsubmissive France” (LFI) party.

In a confrontation, Brengarth accused Bensimon of insulting him during a session break.

At stake in the trial is a message that Hassan (34 years old) published in his account X on March 26, containing a quote from Kozo Okamoto — a Japanese man responsible for an attack at Tel Aviv airport in 1972, in which 26 people were murdered.

In the quote, the Japanese terrorist (died in July in Beirut) claimed to have dedicated his youth to the Palestinian cause and that, “while there is oppression, resistance will not only be a right but a duty”.

Hassan was recently involved in another incident, in which he is accused of overthrowing the Israeli and European flags in an exhibition on the terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023.

The French Foreign Minister defended on October 6 “Exemplar sanctions” if the acts attributed to Hassan are confirmed.

“ The accusations made against a Member of the European Parliament in France that it would have vandalised an exhibition (...) in the European Parliament in memory of the victims of October 7th, if proven, require the European Parliament to impose exemplary sanctions”, said Jean-Noel Barrot in the French parliament.

Rima Hassan’s team reacted in a statement arguing that the MEP, by abandoning the exhibition site, “withdrawed the Israeli flag from the support” and that the EU flag, fixed in the same place, ended up “falling inadvertently due to imbalance.”.

“ No flag was trampled or damaged ", defended.

“Our gesture is part of the denunciation of the genocide that continues to be carried out by the Israeli Government,” but it did not aim at “in any way at the people to whom this event intended to pay tribute, nor at the memory of it,” the members of the MEPs added.

In the Chamber, Rima Hassan reiterated this argument.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar described the episode as “shameful, scandalous, but unfortunately not surprising.”.

“The desecration of the exhibition in honor of the victims of ‘October 7’ in the European Parliament, carried out by the MEP of the extreme left-wing Rima Hassan, demonstrates, above all, the little respect she has for her own institution,” Saar wrote on the X.

The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, said to take the charges against Hassan “extremely seriously”.

“A member of this House was apparently shot vandalising an exhibition” in the European Parliament “that marks the memory of the victims of the terrorist attack perpetrated in Israel on October 7, 2023,” Metsola said in the Chamber.

“ We take this case extremely seriously and all the appropriate measures provided for in our procedures are under way, including respect for the right of the person concerned to be heard,” he added.

The incident is currently being examined by the services of the European Parliament, had indicated a spokesperson to the news agency France-Presse (AFP).