M6 host Ophélie Meunier and a young man from Roubaix, Amine Elbahi, were placed under police protection after receiving threats following a report by the show Restricted zone on Islamism, franceinfo learned on Saturday January 29 from a ministerial source, confirming information from AFP. According to this source, this protection is provided by the SDLP, a service specifically responsible for protecting personalities.
Asked by AFP, M6 indicated that it preferred “do not comment yet”. “I have given instructions that whenever a journalist is the subject of serious threats, he benefits from police protection. We will find the authors of these threats”said on Twitter Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior.
I gave instructions that each time a journalist is the object of serious threats, he benefits from police protection. We will find the perpetrators of these threats. https://t.co/YJ5678fyQ1
— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) January 29, 2022
The broadcast on Sunday of the report, partly devoted to Islamism in the city of Roubaix, had provoked a lively controversy on social networks and continuous news channels, causing even the Minister of the Interior to react to the National Assembly.
“What I said is disturbing. I must have aimed correctly in view of the threats” received since the broadcast, reacted Amine Elbahi, who appears in the show with an open face. Originally from Roubaix, Amine Elbahi had alerted the northern prefecture in October 2020 to an association in the city, “Ambitions and initiatives for success” (AAIR), which he suspected of dispensing “Quranic lessons” under the guise of tutoring, benefiting from public subsidies, in particular municipal ones.
The young man filed a complaint on Friday after receiving numerous threats on social networks, including Twitter, but also text messages, WhatsApp messages, as well as voice recordings “ascertained by bailiff”, according to his lawyer, Me Jean Tamalet. Amine Elbahi is notably qualified as “kuffar” (“unbeliever” in Arabic) and “he is told that he is going to be beheaded and slaughtered”underlines the lawyer.