Paris | Police operations were launched Monday morning in France against “dozens of individuals” evolving in the Islamist movement, after the beheading Friday of a professor, victim of a “fatwa”, announced the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin.
“They obviously launched a fatwa against the professor,” Mr. Darmanin told Europe 1 radio, pointing to suspects in custody. More than 80 investigations have been opened for hate online and arrests have taken place since this assassination, added the minister.
These police operations, decided following the Defense Council held on Sunday, have been carried out since Monday morning and will continue in the coming days.
They do not target individuals “necessarily linked to the investigation” into the assassination of the history professor, Samuel Paty, but aim to “convey a message: (…) not a minute’s respite for the enemies of the Republic ”, underlined Gérald Darmanin, without giving more details.
Since the assassination on Friday of Professor Conflans Saint-Honorine, in the Paris region, “more than 80 investigations” have been opened for online hatred and arrests have taken place, added the minister, who said he wanted to dissolve several associations including the Collective against Islamophobia in France (CCIF).
“51 associative structures will see a certain number of visits from State services all week long and several of them, on my proposal, will be dissolved in the Council of Ministers”, announced Gérald Darmanin.
The CCIF is “obviously involved” and “a certain number of elements allow us to think that it is an enemy of the Republic”, continued the minister. The association “touches state aid, tax deductions and denounces state Islamophobia,” he added.
Mr. Darmanin also cited the NGO Baraka City, founded by Muslims with a Salafist profile, whose President Driss Yemmou was placed under judicial supervision on Thursday as part of an investigation for harassment on social networks.
The association, whose Facebook account is followed by more than 715,000 people, arouses great enthusiasm among many young believers but also suspicion for its sometimes radical positions.
By evoking a “fatwa” against the professor, the minister targeted in particular the father of a college student from Conflans Saint-Honorine and the radical Islamist activist Abdelhakim Sefrioui.
The two men are among the eleven people held in custody in the investigation into this attack perpetrated Friday by an 18-year-old Chechen Russian.