French-Palestinian MEP Rima Hassan was released on Thursday evening after being arrested earlier in the day. She is suspected of glorifying terrorism due to a message she posted on a social networking site X (formerly Twitter). She will have to appear before a judge on July 7.
The politician from the far-left party La France insoumise (LFI) posted a message on March 26 referring to Kozo Okamoto, a former member of the Japanese guerrilla group Red Army.
Okamoto was convicted in Israel for an attack on Israeli Ben-Gurion Airport in 1972, in which 26 people were killed. The Red Army carried out that attack for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
In her message, Hassan appeared to show sympathy for Okamoto. She also posted a quote attributed to him. The MEP deleted the message after being summoned by the police, reports the newspaper, Le Parisien.
According to French media, law enforcement also found synthetic drugs in her bag. In a response, Hassan herself states that it is not about synthetic drugs at all, but about CBD (a substance found in cannabis), "which is completely legal," according to Hassan, who states that she uses CBD for medical reasons.
Hassan, a 33-year-old lawyer and politician, first came under the scrutiny of a judicial investigation in the fall of 2023 for glorifying terrorism. She was accused of having expressed support for the Palestinian group Hamas.
