Two CGT unionists were arrested in northern France on Friday on charges of “excusing terrorism” over a controversial leaflet in support of Palestinians, an arrest that sparked outrage from left-wing politicians who denounce an “authoritarian regime.”
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The police custody of department secretary Jean-Paul Delescaut and an employee, which lasted all morning, was lifted at the beginning of the afternoon.
The investigation “continues,” the public prosecutor’s office in Lille (North) told the AFP news agency, without giving further details. Founded in 1895, the CGT is one of the largest trade unions in France.
According to a source familiar with the case, the two arrests followed a leaflet calling for a demonstration in support of Palestinians in Lille that the CGT distributed on October 10, three days after Hamas’s bloody attack on Israel.
The police “consider that the leaflet represents a kind of apology for terrorism and a call to hatred,” said the lawyer for those in police custody, Me Ioannis Kappopoulos.
One sentence in particular is questioned: “The horrors of the illegal occupation have accumulated.” Since Saturday (October 7th, editor’s note) they have received the reactions they provoked.”
“We recalled (…) that the CGT organization had no connection to terrorism, that it did not exist for terrorism and that it existed to represent workers around the world,” explained the CGT Department secretary leaving the police station Jean-Paul Delescaut denounced “a political tribunal”.
The prefect of the north, Georges-François Leclerc, used this leaflet to ban pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
The general secretary of the CGT, Sophie Binet, denounced “a scandalous arrest”.
“Nothing required police custody and such use of force (…) as if they were terrorists,” she added. “We are very concerned about the deviations and deviations regarding freedom of expression and freedoms in general.”
“’Sorry for terrorism’, who can believe that? “The excuse for terrorism is the government’s unconditional support for war crimes in Gaza,” responded on X (formerly Twitter) the leader of France Insoumise (radical left), Jean-Luc Mélenchon, deploring a “new type of authoritarian regime.”
The war sparked by the Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, mostly civilians, on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides.