A French court sentenced Algerian football player Youcef Atal to an eight-month suspended prison sentence for a social media post regarding the Gaza war.
The Nice criminal court ruled on Wednesday that a video Atal shared on social media in October incited religious hatred. It also fined the footballer, who plays for the Ligue 1 club Nice, 45,000 euros.
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Nice defender Atal, who has been with the club since 2018, was suspended in October following the media post, which he later removed.
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On October 7, Hamas fighters killed 1,200 Israelis in the worst Palestinian militant strike in Israeli history, launching an Israeli military and air offensive that is now in its third month.
According to the Gaza health ministry, the Palestinian dead toll has reached 22,313 as of Wednesday.
The day after the Hamas attack on October 7, Atal uploaded a 35-second video in which a Palestinian preacher called on God to cast “a black day over the Jews,” according to the French newspaper Nice-Matin.
He apologized for the deleted post. “I am aware that my post shocked many people, which wasn’t my intention, and I apologise,” Atal, 27, stated at the time on Instagram.
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