presenter Ophélie Meunier under police protection after reporting on Islamism in Roubaix

The controversy around a report by “Zone Interdite” on Islamism in Roubaix takes a new turn: the presenter Ophélie Meunier and a young Roubaisien, threatened, were placed under police protection, a few days before the mayor’s trial on the facts denounced in the show.

This report on Sunday on a combustible subject in the middle of the presidential campaign had provoked strong reactions on social networks and continuous news channels, causing the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, to react at the National Assembly.

At the same time, Ophélie Meunier and a young native of the city, Amine Elbahi, a witness on the show, received threats, forcing the authorities to place them under the protection of the SDLP.

“I have given instructions that each time a journalist is the subject of serious threats, he benefits from police protection”, reacted Gérald Darmanin on Saturday on Twitter.

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M6 said it would make “no comment at this time”.

“What I said disturbs. I must have aimed correctly in view of the threats, ”said Amine Elbahi. The young man says in the report that he alerted the Nord prefecture at the end of 2020 to an association in the city, “Ambitions and initiatives for success” (AAIR).

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Guillaume Delbar, the mayor of Roubaix in turmoil

He suspected her of providing “Koranic lessons” under the guise of tutoring, benefiting from public subsidies, in particular municipal ones. In the background, suspicions of clientelism against the DVD mayor, Guillaume Delbar. A report was then made to the prosecution.

The mayor, as well as three members of the association are summoned to the Lille Criminal Court on Tuesday, the first for embezzlement “by negligence”, the others for “breach of trust”. A date set well before the broadcast of the report.

Amine Elbahi and the mayor file a complaint

The young man filed a complaint on Friday after receiving numerous threats on social networks, by SMS or on WhatsApp, as well as voice recordings “ascertained by a bailiff”, according to his lawyer, Me Jean Tamalet. Amine Elbahi is notably described as a “kouffar” (unbeliever in Arabic, editor’s note) and “he is told that he is going to be beheaded”, specifies the lawyer.

For his part, claiming to be the victim of a “surge of hatred and threats”, Mayor Guillaume Delbar announced his intention to file a complaint too.

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