At around 5.45pm, five young men stormed into the church building, where one of them shouted “Allah Akbar” once before fleeing.
15 minutes later, the five individuals, four of whom were minors, were arrested and taken into police custody for glorifying terrorism, according to a police source. In this case, their personal data revealed that they were five youths of Turkish origin, most of them minors and unknown to the police. “The detained youths were crying in the car, apparently realising their folly,” a police source said.
The police found that there was an app on the phone of the person who had shouted “Allah hakbar” that called for (Islamic) prayer.
The canon of Metz Cathedral, who was not present at the time of the incident, did not press charges. When asked by Valeurs, he confirmed that no charges had been filed and relativised: “These are disoriented young people, what they did is really not bad or problematic. It was more of a joke. There was no violence or damage to property, otherwise we would of course have pressed charges.
The canon also explains that he doesn’t want to “insist” too much on this story so as “not to add fuel to the fire given the current context”.
The Metz public prosecutor’s office, which was contacted by Valeurs, has not yet responded.
Amaury Bucco – Valeurs actuelles / Cathédrale de Metz (57) : cinq jeunes d’origine turque interpellés après que l’un d’eux ait hurlé “Allah Akbar” en plein concert de musique classique. Le chanoine relativise et ne veut pas porter plainte au vu du “contexte actuel” – Fdesouche