“I have no hatred against anyone”: ten months suspended prison sentence required against Nice defender Youcef Atal

Youcef Atal has been suspended by his Nice club since the video was published. MAXPPP-/APP

A suspended prison sentence as well as a large fine were requested this Monday, December 18 against the Algerian international, after the publication of a video assimilated to "an apology for terrorism". The Niçois pleads clumsiness.  

The prosecution requested a ten-month suspended prison sentence and a 45,000 euro fine against Nice player Youcef Atal, tried on Monday for sharing a 35-second video calling for " a dark day on the Jews”, but which he says he did not watch in full. The judgment was reserved until January 3.

"These are serious facts, which must not be trivialized. Sharing a video means taking credit for the comments and giving them visibility, declared Deputy Prosecutor Meggi Choutia. "I thought there was a message of peace for the people who were suffering in this war", defended the 27-year-old Algerian international player at the bar of the criminal court from Nice, assuring that he "shared this video without watching until the end".

Publication on Instagram

"He sent a message of support to the Palestinians in Gaza. For him, that's peace, and he's not the only one, said his lawyer, Me Antoine Vey. "At no time, during these 35 seconds, is there any question of peace", replied Ms. Choutia in her indictment, considering that the suspended prison sentence could be “a warning sentence" which would encourage the player to think from now on before any publication. She also requested that the conviction be published for a month on the homepage of the player's Instagram account.

Five days after the unprecedented Hamas attacks on October 7 and the start of Israel's bombing of Gaza, and while he was in Algeria with his national team , Atal had reposted on his Instagram account, followed by 3.2 million people, the video of a preacher, Mahmoud Al Hasanat. In this video, the preacher first evokes, moved to tears, the fate of the children of Gaza. Then he toughens his tone and calls on God to send "a dark day on the Jews”.

"On Instagram, 35 seconds is a long time", recognized Me Vey, assuring that sharing this video was certainly a "mistake" ethical but not a criminal fault on the part of the player, prosecuted for provoking hatred on the grounds of religion.

"Of hatred against anyone"

Suspended for seven matches by the disciplinary committee of the Professional Football League (LFP), Youcef Atal has no longer worn the Nice jersey since this publication, but he started during the three matches played since by the "Fennecs" Algerians, several of whom gave him their support. The day after its publication, it was OGC Nice which warned him of the controversial nature of the remarks. Atal then deleted it, with an apology message written by his agent. He had previously issued a similar apology after "liking" a controversial video of Chechen MMA fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov, whose comments he did not try to understand in Russian.

He, who shares very little content outside of football, admitted that he had not sought to find out about Mahmoud Al Hasanat, a preacher who often makes very virulent comments. "I am not anti-Semitic. I am neither against Jews nor against Christians, I have no hatred against anyone,” he insisted, recalling that unlike many athletes in the Arab world, he does not hate anyone. #39;had not hesitated to play in Tel-Aviv with Nice.

"Algeria is with you"

His remarks did not convince the civil parties, mainly Jewish organizations and the LFP. "You have the right to express yourself, to display the Palestinian flag", explained Me Serge Tavitian, lawyer for Licra (International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism): "But why not have condemned in the same movement October 7 and the rain of iron, fire, blood which is spreading in Gaza ?", he said launched.

If the player remained calm and discreet, refusing to speak to the media, several women welcomed him to the court with "Algeria is with you&quot ; or "long live Palestine", before taking on journalists who were questioning lawyers for the civil parties in the Salle des Pas Perdus.