French police arrested three Algerians suspected of provoking violence in TikTok videos, including two facing terror indictments. The detentions come amid rising political tensions between France and its ex-North African colony. Imad Tintin, a video blogger, was apprehended outside Grenoble after posting a video encouraging them to “burn alive, kill and rape on French territory”. After 800,000 views, the post was removed, but Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau posted a video grab on his account, criticising the post as “vile”.
As reported by French media, Grenoble prosecutors placed the 31-year-old blogger under judicial supervision, they said. His fast-track trial was scheduled for “direct incitement of an action of terrorism”, the state prosecution service stated. In December 2021, Imad Tintin entered France and requested a residence permit in August 2023 after he wedded a French woman. But his request was rejected, and he is also subject to an expulsion ruling.
A 25-year-old Algerian identified as Youcef A, also known as Zazou Youssef on social media, has been detained in Brest, said prosecutor Camille Miansoni. On February 24, he will stand trial there for “publicly endorsing an act of terrorism” in posts to his hundreds of thousands of TikTok followers, she expressed.
He could receive up to seven years in jail and a 100,000-euro penalty if sentenced, the statement added. A video posted on TikTok by Zazou Youssef on December 31 called for attacks in France and brutality in Algeria. It was his temporary residency permit that allowed him to live in France.
There has been an announcement of the arrests of Imad Tintin and Yousseff by prosecutors and an announcement by Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau of a third arrest. The third man was arrested in the southern coastal city of Montpellier for fierce statements targeting an Algerian activist who resisted that country’s administration. According to the prosecutor, local authorities noted a tape in which an influencer stated:
“Kill him, let him suffer.”
Strains have increased between Algeria and France after President Emmanuel Macron restarted French backing for Moroccan sovereignty over the debated parts of Western Sahara during a milestone visit to the kingdom last year. Formerly a Spanish colony, Western Sahara is mainly under the authority of Morocco. Sahrawi separatists of the Polisario Front claim it, and they are supported by Algiers.
The Algerian authorities have imprisoned French-Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal, a prominent figure in modern francophone literature, since mid-November on national security allegations. Concerning Sansal’s case, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot expressed suspicions about Algeria’s commitment to a road map formed by the two flanks in 2022 to facilitate postcolonial concerns.
