(Paris) Seventeen people were arrested on suspicion of having cyber-harassed the singer Eddy de Pretto who had been targeted by a wave of homophobic insults and death threats on social networks after a concert in a church in June 2021 , we learned Thursday from a source familiar with the matter.
Posted at 11:28
These people were arrested on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, all over France, said this source, confirming information from the Parisian. Aged between 20 and 30, the suspects, mostly men, were mostly unknown to the justice system. Some are conservative Catholics, the source said.
The arrests were carried out by the gendarmes of the Central Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity, Genocide and War Crimes (OCLCH), also responsible for the fight against hate crimes, in conjunction with services local police and gendarmerie.
The facts date back to June 2021. Invited as part of the Qui va piano va sano festival to perform at the Saint-Eustache church in Paris, Eddy de Pretto had performed his piece What’s the point which evokes the difficulties of reconciling his homosexuality and religion.
After his performance, he had received, according to The Parisian, nearly 3000 messages of insults and death threats on social networks. “Do you want to sing sodom in a church? No worries, wear your balls and do the same (sic) in a mosque”, “Fuck your mother”, had notably written internet users according to screenshots posted on the singer’s Instagram account.
The latter had filed a complaint and an investigation had been opened by the National Pole for the Fight against Online Hate (PLNH) of the Paris prosecutor’s office.