France makes arrests over speech supporting terror attacks

French authorities have tightened security in response to last week’s terrorist attacks, ordering a crackdown on speech that backs terrorism.

French authorities issued an order to strictly enforce laws against voicing support for terrorist acts and disclosed that 54 people had been arrested recently for violating the prohibitions, initially adopted to deter and punish anti-Semitic remarks.

In a message to prosecutors and judges, the Interior Ministry said it was concerned about speech that could incite violence, noting no one should be allowed to use religion to justify such speech. The order warned authorities to especially watch for comments that could lead to urban unrest or violence against police.

The New York Times reported Thursday that several people had been arrested this week for voicing support for the terror attacks and that their cases appear to have been accelerated through the trial and sentencing phases.

The Times reported a 28-year-old man was sentenced to six months in jail after he shouted support for the attackers while passing a police station. A 34-year-old man who got in a car accident while drunk then praised the gunmen received four years in prison.

The arrests raise questions over the nature of free expression in France where publishing a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad, considered highly offensive to many Muslims, is allowed or even praised but voicing support for radical forms of Islam is punished.

Among those accused of speaking out in defense of last week’s attack at the satirical magazine was a controversial comedian, Dieudonne M’bala M’bala, news channel France 24 reported. He was detained after posting on social media that he felt as victimized as one of the gunmen, Amedy Coulibaly, 32, who took shoppers hostage at a kosher market Friday, killing four before he died in a police raid.

“Whenever I express myself some people will not even try to understand me, they will not listen,” the comic said in a letter to the interior minister. “They try to find some kind of pretext to suppress me. I am looked upon as if I were Amedy Coulibaly, when I am no different from Charlie.”

Even as Parisians snapped up the latest issue of Charlie Hebdo and spoke of the importance of free speech, many also said they support expanding surveillance and screening of suspected terrorists.

Alexandre Dupouy, 42, a tech consultant, said that by confronting Dieudonne, the government was confronting anti-Semitic hate speech.

“He can be very funny, but you feel behind his words, there is a real threat,” Dupouy said as he sat in a cafe late Wednesday.

He said he also supports expanded airport screening, wiretaps, and Internet and other surveillance, noting last week’s attackers had been monitored by police but police access was limited.

“You can’t control everything. You can’t prevent everything. But it will improve the situation,” he said of expanded surveillance.

His friend Mourad Chouardbi, 42, a fellow tech worker, agreed.

“Before the attacks people would not have accepted it. Now, people are realizing there are some loopholes that allow people to go under the radar” of police, said Chouardbi, who is Muslim and whose family comes from Algeria.

He said he doesn’t fear discrimination, racial profiling or undue infringements on his civil rights.

“If you want more security, you have to limit the liberty,” he said.

Authorities have said they believe more accomplices may be at large, including Hayat Boumeddiene, 26, Coulibaly’s partner. Turkish officials have said she flew to Istanbul a week before the attacks and is believed to have fled to Syria.

Hennessy-Fiske reported from Paris and Williams from Los Angeles.