12-year-old boy tried at the end of August for “apology” and “incitement to a terrorist act”

The Montbéliard prosecutor was keen to emphasise “the minor’s significant fragility”.

A 12-year-old boy will be tried at the end of August by the juvenile judge of Montbéliard (Doubs), for “public apology for an act of terrorism” committed via the internet and “direct provocation to a terrorist act by means of online communication”announced the Montbéliard prosecutor on Wednesday July 3 during a press conference.

This child was arrested on June 10th following a report made under Article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure by the DGSI to the Montbéliard public prosecutor’s office. The intelligence services first discreetly followed the minor’s online activities, and realized that he was publishing on various social networks videos of executions linked to the Islamic State, jihadist propaganda and other anti-Semitic and homophobic content. The public prosecutor’s office then contacted the Doubs judicial police department to conduct the investigations.

These investigations showed that he relayed and encouraged contacts on video game platforms and social networks to share jihadist content, highlighting characters with terrorist names in particular. On encrypted messaging, this minor assured that he was interested in the manufacture of explosives and claimed to have already made some. “Elements that the investigation was unable to establish” in any way whatsoever, the prosecutor said. When contacted and informed of the entire procedure, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) did not take charge of the investigation, considering that the offences of terrorist criminal association and terrorist enterprise had not been established.

During his arrest, the police also arrested his mother and her partner, to check who was really hiding behind the IP address of the computer at the family home. The mother said she knew nothing about her son being radicalized. Investigations showed that “The boy’s parents blame each other”according to the prosecutor. At the same time, the police carried out searches, seizing in particular the minor’s computer equipment and telephone. The latter was placed in detention [et non pas en garde à vue, car âgé de moins de 13 ans] for a period of 12 hours. During this detention, the Montbéliard prosecutor indicated that the boy admitted to all the facts and, according to a police source at franceinfo, assumed his anti-Semitism and homophobia.

At the end of his detention, the child was temporarily placed in an educational structure, until June 28, when he was placed in detention a second time to confront him with the evidence that the police found when using his computer equipment. According to the Montbéliard prosecutor, he reiterated his confession. The prosecutor, Paul-Edouard Lallois, is keen to emphasize “the significant fragility of the minor” Who “must help us understand his attraction to terrorist publications”The magistrate wishes to affirm “We must not forget that I had a child in front of me. A child who cried a lot.”. For the prosecutor “questions arise about the true understanding of what he was consulting (…) He has a minimal awareness of what he was doing”.

This boy has been the subject of a psychiatric assessment, the prosecutor specifies. According to provisional conclusions, the expert has highlighted an alteration of the minor’s discernment. He can therefore be judged. This will be at the end of August by the juvenile judge of Montbéliard. While awaiting his trial, he remains provisionally placed “in a secret location”The psychiatric expert noted in his provisional conclusions that the minor had “a fairly clear awareness of the reprehensible nature of what he was doing”The expert also pointed out a developmental delay dating back to early childhood, including a language delay and “a self-image disorder”. A boy who “remains difficult to define”.