France moves to crack down on terror speech

From the French edition of The Local

French courts have started handing out prison sentences to outspoken supporters of the recent terror attacks in Paris, with a girl as young as 15 apprehended by police for referring to the Kouachis as “my brothers”.  

The longest sentence so far was handed to a man in the northern French city of Valenciennes on Tuesday after he was found guilty of telling police “there should be more Kouachis. I hope you’re the next (victims)”. According to France Info, he was sentenced to four years behind bars.

In Toulouse, southern France, three men between the ages of 20 and 25 received ten-month jail terms after they applauded the murder of 17 people during last week’s attacks. “The Kouachi brothers are only the first ones, I should have been with them so we could have killed more people,” one of the accused was reported as telling tramway security in the city in southern France.

French authorities are also concerned about the high volume of altercations in schools across the country during the minute of silence held for the victims of the Charlie Hebdo and Kosher supermarket massacres.

Out of the 70 incidents they recorded, the words of a 15-year-old schoolgirl who interrupted the homage are perhaps the most disturbing. “They succeeded, I’m proud of them and their killings, they’re my brothers”.

Another 16-year-old is recorded as shouting jihadi threats against all “whites”.

In Orleans a young man was handed a six month jail sentence for shouting “Long live the Kalashnikov” at a group of police officers in the city.

French prosecutors said on Monday they were also investigating notorious comedian Dieudonné, who is accused by critics for being anti-Semtic, for “inciting terrorism” with a Facebook comment that could be interpreted as sympathizing with one of last week’s attackers in Paris.  “Tonight, as far as I’m concerned, I feel like Charlie Coulibaly”, the comedian wrote, combining the expression “Je suis Charlie” (“I am Charlie”) with a reference to Friday’s kosher supermarket attacker Amedy Coulibaly.