French MEP Rima Hassan Detained in Terrorism Apology Case

French-Palestinian Member of the European Parliament Rima Hassan was placed in police custody in Paris on Thursday as part of an investigation into alleged apology for terrorism stemming from a social media post she made last month.

The 33-year-old lawmaker from the far-left La France Insoumise party voluntarily presented herself at the regional judicial police headquarters, according to her office and French media reports. The probe, led by the national online hate control unit, centers on a now-deleted post on X dated March 26. In it, Hassan shared an article about Kōzō Okamoto, a member of the Japanese Red Army who participated in a 1972 attack at Israel's Lod Airport that killed 26 people. She included a quote attributed to Okamoto: "I dedicated my youth to the Palestinian cause. As long as there is oppression, resistance will not only be a right, but a duty."

The post prompted a complaint from Matthias Renault, a lawmaker with the far-right National Rally party, who alerted Paris prosecutors. Renault described the content as explicitly referencing a terrorist perpetrator without condemnation and framing resistance as a duty. During her detention, authorities reportedly...