the founder of BarakaCity sentenced to ten months in prison

The founder of the NGO BarakaCity, dissolved at the end of October by the government, was sentenced on Friday March 12 to ten months in prison. Idriss Sihamedi was convicted of harassing online Zohra Bitan, RMC radio columnist. He will also have to pay a fine of 5,000 euros. Idriss Sihamedi, whose real name is Driss Yemmou, admitted to investigators having published 133 tweets in September implicating Zohra Bitan. The founder of BarakaCity accused him of “to pour out his hatred on Muslim women”.

Starting point of this cyberbullying campaign, the RMC columnist had publicly reacted to a video of college girl in hijab giving cooking tips by stating that this choice to wear the veil corresponded “to an ideology from which flow innumerable inequalities between women and men”. On Twitter, Idriss Sihamedi then arrested Zohra Bitan and his two sons about alleged criminal offenses. The defendant had also published a photograph of the family mailbox as well as a stolen registered mail.

In January, the Paris Criminal Court acquitted him of the online harassment lawsuit against the former journalist of Charlie hebdo and activist Zineb El Rhazoui. An acquittal which the prosecution appealed. Last week, he was sentenced by the Paris court to a 3,000 euro fine for racist insults against Zineb El Rhazoui, in a separate case.