Top French far-left MP Mathilde Panot summoned by police over Hamas comments

NEWS WIRES

23 April 2024 at 10:57 am·1-min read

The leader of far-left MPs in the French parliament was on Tuesday summoned for questioning by police in an investigation into suspected justification of "terrorism" over comments on the October 7 attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel.

Mathilde Panot heads the lower house of the parliament faction of the France Unbowed (LFI) party, which has been repeatedly accused by opponents of failing to clearly condemn the attack by Hamas.

The LFI – which is now France's strongest political force on the left – has in turn lashed out at what it sees as an erosion of free speech and accused Israel of committing "genocide" against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Panot said it was the first time in the history of modern France that a head of a parliamentary faction "was summoned on such serious grounds".

"I am warning about this serious exploitation of justice aimed at suppressing political expression," she said.

Last week, two conferences by Mélenchon on the situation in the Middle East were cancelled in Lille, first at the university then in a private room.

(AFP)

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