Below are two articles from Le Figaro concerning a complaint lodged against the French interior minister by a soccer star over remarks made by the minister that the player had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Many thanks to Gary Fouse for the translations.
The first article:
“Connections” with the Muslim Brotherhood: Gerald Darmanin wins his judicial standoff against Karim Benzema
The defamation complaint brought by the football player against the Minister of Interior was dismissed on Tuesday, 13 February, announced the General Prosecutor, Remy Heitz, Thursday at the Court of Cassation.
February 15, 2024
The defamation complaint by Karim Benzema against the Minister of Interior, Gerald Darmanin, who had stated that the football player had a “notorious” connection to the Islamist organization the Muslim Brotherhood was dismissed on Tuesday, February 13, the general prosecutor, Remy Heitz announced at the Court of Cassation on Thursday. The Petition Committee of the Republic Court of Justice (CJR) “maintains that the complaint of Mr. Benzema, received January 16, relates to comments that attributed to him nothing of a nature to do harm to his honor or his reputation,” reads the statement by Mr. Heitz.
“This decision by the Petition Commission, composed of three magistrates from the seat of the Court of Cassation, two State councilors, and two senior councilors at the Court of Audits, is not subject to any recourse,” he stated. The lawyer for Karim Benzema, Attorney Hugues Vigier, did not respond to inquiries from AFP. Queried by AFP, the minister’s staff had no reaction.
“Unjust bombings” by Israel
The 2022 Golden Ball award winner (player of the year) had been targeted by Gerald Darmanin after posting a message of support in Mid-October on X for the inhabitants of Gaza, victims, according to him, of “unjust bombings” carried out by Israel in retaliation for the bloody Hamas attack on 7 October. The Minister of the Interior had stated that this taking of a position could be explained by the links between Karim Benzema and the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization founded in Egypt, where it is considered to be “terrorist”.
“Karim Benzema has a notorious connection, we all know, with the Muslim Brotherhood. We are attacking a hydra that is the Muslim Brotherhood, because they create an atmosphere of jihadism,” he had stated on 16 October, unleashing a storm on social media. Politicians from the extreme right and the right also got involved in the polemics, such as Eric Zemmour or Nadine Morano.
“False” accusations
In his complaint, the former international (97 caps*) argued that these accusations were “inexact”, more likely false, but in any case, deliberate and were attacking his honor and his reputation. The 36-year-old player, who plays today for the Saudi team Al Ittihad, displays his Muslim faith reaffirming “not to have ever had the slightest connection with the Muslim Brotherhood organization, nor, to his knowledge, with anyone who would claim such a connection.”
According to statements by his staff to AFP in October, to support his remarks, the Minister of Interior relied on “a slow drift of Karim Benzema’s positions toward a hard, rigorous Islam, characteristic of the Brotherhood ideology,” notably with “a proselytism on social media on Muslim worship, such as fasting, prayer, (and) pilgrimage to Mecca”. The staff also recalled his refusal to sing the National Anthem before the French team’s matches.
“Something is hidden”
On October 25, Gerald Darmanin reiterated his remarks in saying that “something is hidden” when a football player posts a political opinion “in a selective manner”. Mr. Darmanin affirmed that he would retract his remarks if Benzema, “tweeted to equally mourn” the murder of a professor of French from Arras (North), Dominique Bernard, by a young, radicalized Islamist.
Karim Benzema is considered one of the best strikers of his generation, but has had a hectic past with the national team. The National Court of Justice (CJR) is the only jurisdiction empowered to prosecute and judge members of the government for infractions committed within the exercise of their functions. The prosecutor general at the Court of Cassation represents the Public Ministry.
| * | Caps: The number of times a soccer player has represented his country in official international matches. |
The second article:
“Judicial jihad”: The disturbing strategy of intimidation by the Islamists
by Judith Weinraub
February 18, 2024
Investigation: Inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood, “anti-racist” militants such as Rokhaya Diallo are increasing court proceedings to reduce critics of Islamism to silence. With the active help of the League of Human Rights or Mrap [Movement against racism and for friendship of nations].
The complaint of the football player Karim Benzema against Gerald Darmanin, who had accused him of “connections” with the Muslim Brotherhood, was dismissed last Tuesday. A decision greeted by elected officials, writers, researchers, or “whistleblower” citizens, victims of judicial harassment aimed at silencing them, and those who do not have the means available to the Interior Minister to defend himself.
“If the court had not ruled that to attribute connections to the Muslim Brotherhood on the part of someone ‘does not do harm to their honor or their reputation,’ we would have been prevented by an interminable judicial guerilla war from working to expose the Brotherhood ideology”. It is in these terms that Florence Bergeaud-Blackler rejoiced on X over the dismissal of the complaint by Karim Benzema against Gerald Darmanin. The Minister of Interior had attributed the football player’s biased comments on the conflict in Gaza to his closeness to the Muslim Brotherhood. Under police protection since the release of her book, “The Brotherhood and its networks”, in January 2023, Florence Bergeaud-Blackler herself has been the object of attempts at intimidation, which have gone as far as death threats. Her lawyer, Thibault de Montbrial, has just had one of her harassers sentenced to prison.
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