He didn’t hesitate long to brag about it on Twitter. On Wednesday June 23, the founder of the forbidden Islamist association BarakaCity, Idriss Sihamedi, said he had “sentenced” the Interior Ministry to pay him 1,500 euros. The interior ministry had in fact refused to release information about him from his S-card registered in the wanted persons file (FPR), Le Figaro reports. “I don’t know if you noticed, but my lawyer (Me Sefen Guez Guez, editor’s note) ordered the Interior Ministry to pay me €1,500 because it violated my privacy and that of my family and because it was a ‘disproportionate violation of the law’. This is good to know,” Idriss Sihamedi wrote on his Twitter account. He also denounced: “The Ministry of Interior has NEVER given any information related to state security” and judged that the Fiche S “is a tool to spy on Muslims”.
The Ministry of the Interior confirmed that it had been ordered to pay “1,500 euros in non-refundable costs” but ” not compensation for breach of privacy”. It told Le Figaro that Idriss Sihamedi “had asked for data on him to be communicated in the wanted persons file. The authorities had refused “as usual”: “This information could jeopardise the intended use of the file”, the ministry explained.
On March 3, the Paris Criminal Court sentenced Idriss Sihamedi to a fine of 3,000 euros for insulting and racist remarks against former Charlie Hebdo columnist Zineb El Rhazoui. He must also pay the former journalist 1,500 euros in damages and 2,000 euros in legal fees.The preacher had called Zineb el Rhazoui a “fake Arab” on his Twitter account.