Doha-and Algerian TIKTOK Influencer Boualem, known as “Doualemn”, was sentenced to a five-month prison sentence on Thursday by the Montpellier Criminal Court for “public provocation to commit a crime”.
During a highly published hearing on February 24, the public prosecutor had applied for a six-month prison sentence, while his lawyer had asked Jean-Baptiste Mousseet the acquittal.
The case has become a focus in the deterioration in diplomatic relationships between France and Algeria.
The 59-year-old maintenance worker, who had 138,000 TikTok supporters, was found guilty To challenge the “severe correction” of an Algerian opposition figure in a early January.
“The call to commit violence is characterized by the use of a term that he explains” giving slaps or spanking “in order to target an identifiable person,” said the Court and emphasized that “these could not be humorous terms.”
The case accepted a diplomatic gravity in Algeria incorrect by refusing to accept Doualemn after his deportation by the French authorities.
After Doualemn was set on a flight to Algiers on January 9th, he was immediately sent back to France, a French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau described as Algeria, “to humiliate France”.
The diplomatic voltage continues to escalate in Algeria rejected to accept a number of irregular migrants, including the perpetrator of an attack on February 22nd in Mulhouse.
These rejections have sparked even more tense relationships between the two countries, which, after the recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty in France, received deeper discord in July 2024.
Doualemn’s legal journey was anything but uncomplicated. The Paris Administrative Court initially exposed His emergency reference considers it unjustified.
The Melun Administrative Court then has to cancel its obligation to leave the French area (OQTF), and asked the authorities to restart the exclusion process with a proper hearing.
During his latest appearance before the Exclusion Commission (Comex) in Montpellier, Doualemn recognized that his statements were called up to violence while playing down their severity.
“I was carried away,” he said, adding that he “sincerely sorry”. His lawyer, Marie David-Bellouard, argued that the case “was blown out by a political step of the Interior Minister”.
The Comex is expected to submit your opinion on the new exclusion application submitted by the Hérault prefect on March 12. Doualemn’s defense team has already announced their intention to appeal against the decision of the criminal court.
France-Algerie deteriorating diplomacy
The case remains a more emblematic tension between France and Algeria.
In response to growing security concerns, retailleau announced At the beginning of March the compilation of a list of “several hundred Algerian nationals with dangerous profiles” for potential deportation.
Retailleau has framed the reaction of Algeria to the deportation of France as a “test of truth” and accused Algeria of observing international agreements, including the 1944 Chicago Convention, and a bilateral agreement from 1994 of 1994.
France also implements a “graded answer” at its limits. Retailleau confirmed These authorities have started to return some Algerian citizens at Roissy Airport, which requires diplomatic pass owners to issue mission orders.
France, citing Algeria’s lack of cooperationPresent He also announced travel limits for certain Algerian dignitaries, a step that the Foreign Ministry from Foreign Ministry in Algeria denounced as “part of a long list of provocations, intimidations and threats”.
The Ministry alleged It was “surprised” by the decision, even though the French officials claimed that previous notifications were sent.
On February 28, French President Emmanuel Macron tried to alleviate tensions with algeria about migration problems and at the same time demand the solution to another urgent matter to the case of detained Franco Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, which, despite cancer, is detained.
