Taha Bouhafs was sentenced on appeal to a suspended fine of 1,000 euros for “racist insult”, Thursday, October 27. The ex-candidate of La France insoumise in the legislative elections in the 14th constituency of the Rhône, before retiring, had declared that the policewoman Linda Kebbab, member of the union SGP-FO Unit, was a “Service Arabic” in 2020.
The policewoman welcomed this condemnation on Twitter. For her, that “demonstrates that no environment is exempt from racist and discriminatory behavior. No one should be targeted or smeared, discriminated against or insulted, because of their origins. No one should be at all”. Linda Kebbab believes that the militancy of Taha Bouhafs is “supposedly anti-racist” whereas it is “actually exclusively anti-police” and that he “is not intended to unite but to disunite in resentment”.
KEBBAB 2 – 0 bouhafs pic.twitter.com/joSwIh27ct
—Linda Kebbab (@LindaKebbab) October 27, 2022
Rejecting the expression “Arab service” and what it covers, the plaintiff wishes to recall that, “Nope [elle n’a] not named as an alibi or surety” to the police or his union.
Taha Bouhafs, he announces that he will appeal in cassation. “This decision is stubborn in the violation of my freedom of expression and in the repression of political anti-racism. The formula used was intended to qualify a racist strategy of the police institution and to denounce the political position of Linda Kebbab, representative of ‘a police union, one of whose spokespersons declared on TV that: ‘To say bamboola to a black man was about right'”explained the militant journalist on Twitter.
The formula used was intended to qualify a racist strategy of the police institution and to denounce the political position of Linda Kebbab, representative of a police union, one of whose spokespersons declared on TV that: “to say bamboola to a black man was almost suitable “
— Taha Bouhafs (@T_Bouhafs) October 27, 2022
“I have been subjected to the violence of racism since I was old enough to understand it. I gave, without hesitation, the first years of my life as a young adult to ardently combat this hatred, its soldiers and its stratagems. Who can, today honestly think that I myself am a racist of Arabs?he asked.
Taha Bouhafs had already been sentenced at first instance to a fine of 1,500 euros in the fall of 2021. Tipped to be a candidate for the legislative elections in the 14th district of the Rhône for La France insoumise, he had finally had to withdraw from the race after to have been targeted by accusations of rape and psychological violence against women. An internal investigation is opened within the party.