The trial of four young men tried in an immediate appearance in Bobigny Wednesday for violence against Roma was returned. This follows punitive raids that swept through Roma after rumors of kidnapping attempts.
The trial of four young men to be held Wednesday in Bobigny for violence against Roma, after unfounded rumors of child abduction on social networks, was dismissed.
The four defendants, aged 18 to 22 years, will be tried on April 17 for acts of violence and rebellion. Juvenile traits and polite air, they were presented Wednesday in immediate appearance in Bobigny, but one of them requested the dismissal of the trial.
They are suspected of having participated in a punitive expedition to Clichy-sous-Bois against Roma, a community designated by rumors on social networks as responsible for attempts to kidnap children or teenagers by people traveling in a white van. . These events are "the demonstration of the absolute necessity to fight against 'fake news'," said government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux, denouncing "absolutely unacceptable drifts". Eleven suspects were still in custody Wednesday for other violence occurred Monday, in Bobigny this time.
Roma attacked on the basis of rumors
About fifty people armed with knives and sticks had attacked Roma settled on the edge of a national. Vans were burned, according to a police source. Other brawls erupted later in the evening in Bobigny. The Bobigny public prosecutor's office recalled that it was not seized "at this time of any investigation for kidnapping of minors by persons from the Roma community".
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After these incidents, no violence was reported in the night of Tuesday to Wednesday in the department where the police were however called "three, four times because the Roma are logically very worried," according to the police source. The number 1 police in Seine-Saint-Denis, Francois Leger, said that the 34 Roma camps in the department would be "safe night".
Associations mobilized to defend the Roma
The national collective human rights (CNDH) Romeurope, which brings together 48 associations, deplores that "people who live in slums and / or who drive a van (...) often dare not go out to continue their activities usual ". "Families must stop living in terror," says the group, which calls on the authorities to "act strongly to protect the people concerned". On Tuesday night, Roma associations had already denounced the return of "secular racism".
The association SOS-Racism said Wednesday in a statement to have called "Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter and Jeuxvideo.com to ask them to moderate and stop the rumors circulating on their platforms." "With the exception of Jeuxvideo.com", "only a minority" of these contents have been removed, regretted the association. She called on the government to bring the platforms together to "commit to pro-active moderation when these rumors are reported to have quick, massive and criminal consequences."