A 38-year-old man was sentenced yesterday to six months’ probation for shouting “Fuck France”, “allah akbar” or “free palestine” and waving a pair of scissors threateningly outside a Jewish restaurant known for its falafel specialities on Thursday November 2.
The crime took place in Rue des Rosiers in Paris, a neighbourhood “known as the Jewish quarter” (according to the president of the court), where a Palestinian terrorist organisation had carried out an attack on another Jewish restaurant 50 years ago (August 1982). The man caused a panic on the street. A witness who was walking his dog and alerted the police reported that he had ” feared the worst”. The heavily intoxicated man was eventually arrested and taken into police custody. However, he also threatened a police officer by repeatedly telling him “I will shoot you” as well as “allah akbar”.
However, the prosecution felt that there was not enough evidence to charge him with glorification of terrorism. As the defendant was a Pakistani asylum seeker, the entire hearing had to be conducted with the assistance of an interpreter who spoke Urdu: both to translate the court’s statements and to translate the defendant’s statements in court. This did not facilitate the hearing.
The court rightly wondered what a Pakistani asylum seeker, housed in a council flat in OrlĂ©ans, was doing on Rue des Rosiers in Paris when, drunk, he shouted “allah akbar”, threatening passers-by and referring to Palestine. The response formulated by the defendant Shahid M. was quite surprising:
On the one hand, he explained that he was fed up with the cramped conditions of his council flat and therefore wanted to leave OrlĂ©ans. Furthermore, he had come to Paris to go to the hairdresser and have his hair cut, which is why he was carrying a pair of scissors. For everything else, he recalled being drunk and not remembering anything except that, contrary to what the witnesses said, he didn’t talk about Palestine (but that wasn’t the reason he was charged either).
His background is quite symptomatic of the migration confusion that prevails in Europe. Shahid M. explains that he left Pakistan in 2010 because his brothers were killed by the local mafia. He then left his pregnant wife and made his way to Europe via Libya.
He applied for asylum in Italy, but also in Germany, all of which were rejected. Eleven months ago, he travelled to France because he had heard that it was easy to work illegally in France and that it was easier to get papers.
Shahid M. goes on to explain that all the money he earns from moonlighting on building sites is spent on alcohol, as he is said to drink a bottle of whisky and several cans of beer every day. The public prosecutor demanded a prison sentence. The prosecutor said: “We have heard very few explanations,” and pointed to the defendant’s grin. He does not build trust”.
Shahid M., who was unknown to the judiciary, was eventually released. He was sentenced to 6 months in prison on probation + 2 years probation + alcohol treatment and a permanent residence.  Le Figaro / « Nique la France », « Allah Akbar », « Free Palestine » : un demandeur dâasile Pakistanais armĂ© dâune paire de ciseaux crĂ©e un mouvement de foule Rue des Rosiers Ă Paris ; il explique avoir une formation de coiffeur, et ressort libre du tribunal â Fdesouche