Nahel M.’s family filed a complaint on Tuesday, July 4, with the Paris public prosecutor for “organized gang scam” against far-right polemicist Jean Messiha, according to a document consulted by Le Monde. The former spokesperson for Eric Zemmour’s campaign has launched an online fundraiser in support of the police officer charged with “intentional homicide” after the death of teenager Nahel M. in Nanterre on June 27. This reached, on Tuesday, more than 1.5 million euros.
The family’s lawyer, Me Yassine Bouzrou, took legal action for “organized fraud, misappropriation of personal data processing and concealment of these crimes”. He criticizes Eric Zemmour’s former spokesperson for having “publicly and falsely presented Nahel M. as a ‘multi-recidivist'” and for having diverted information from the file processing the teenager’s criminal history “to criminalize it and create a movement of support for the officer who fired.” According to the complaint, Jean Messiha would have used “fraudulent maneuvers” in order to obtain funds for this kitty supposed to go to the family of the police officer indicted for intentional homicide. And to add that “anyone benefiting from the kitty, even if they are from the family of the policeman who killed Nahel, would therefore be guilty of concealment of fraud in an organized gang”.
This complaint comes at the same time as Nupes deputies announced that they had taken legal action, on the grounds of the serious risk of disturbing public order. Jean Messiha assured shortly after that he would close the kitty “this July 4 at midnight” and that all the funds raised would be donated to the family.
“This fundraiser complies with our terms of service”
Posted on June 29 on the GoFundMe platform, this kitty collected in five days nearly 1.5 million euros paid by 72,000 contributors (i.e. four times more than the kitty to support the mother of Nahel M .). Very quickly, this campaign started and relayed by the far right sparked controversy. Several voices on the left have denounced a “shame pot” and called on GoFundMe to shut it down.
Solicited on Monday by Le Monde, the American company was content to explain that “for the moment, this kitty respects the terms of our service, since it specifies that the funds are intended to support the family. They have been added as beneficiaries so the money will go directly to them.”
Yet, as the collective Sleeping Giants has pointed out, the site asks users in its terms and conditions to agree “not to create or contribute to any fundraiser with the implicit or explicit objective of promoting or involving ( …) the legal defense of alleged financial and violent crimes”.
If the kitty calls for “support for the family of the Nanterre policeman, Florian M., who has done his job and is now paying a high price”, it also contains the following sentence which may cast doubt on the purpose of the funds raised: “Support it massively and support our law enforcement!” “. Asked about this specific point, GoFundMe did not respond to our new requests.
The precedent of Christophe Dettinger
Questioned Tuesday at the National Assembly, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, assured that “it belongs, as during the” yellow vests “and as during the attacks, to the justice of our country – and in particular to the court of High Court – to be able to close this kitty”. But the left-wing opposition reminded the government of its different attitude, when it launched a kitty in support of the “yellow vest”, and former professional boxer Christophe Dettinger, filmed on January 5, 2019 fighting with the forces of order with fists.
While this kitty had collected more than 130,000 euros in two days, the Leetchi hosting platform decided on January 8, 2019 to close it in the face of the indignation of several political figures, including members of the government and trade unions from police. At the time, Leetchi explained that the funds raised could only be used to finance the former boxer’s legal costs, citing non-compliance with his general conditions of use which “prohibit any incitement to hatred or to violence”.
But Christophe Dettinger, meanwhile sentenced to thirty months in prison, eighteen of which were suspended, had taken the French platform to court to recover the amount of the kitty and 3.1 million euros in damages (his estimate of the amount that would have been collected if it had not been closed after two days). On January 6, 2021, the Paris court ruled the object of the kitty “contrary to public order”, pronounced the nullity of the contract concluded with the company Leetchi and ordered the platform to reimburse the contributors. The former boxer has since appealed. At first instance, the court considered that “the kitty was created to support Mr. Dettinger during the violence committed against the police” and not to finance lawyers’ fees or materially support his family, which would have been legal.
Contrary to public order
However, article 1162 of the Civil Code provides that the contract cannot derogate from public order. The court considered that at the time of the opening of the kitty whose name was initially “supports (sic) a yellow vest boxer”, the only notoriety of Christophe Dettinger rested on the fact of having committed violence on of the gendarmes and that it was therefore “initially intended to support a fight consisting of the use of physical violence against the forces of order”. “Fund-raising for this purpose is sufficiently offensive to morality and public order to be considered an unlawful purpose,” the judgment noted.
Moreover, according to article 40 of the law of July 29, 1881 on the freedom of the press, it is prohibited “to open or publicly announce subscriptions intended to compensate fines, costs and damages pronounced by judicial convictions”. The Paris Court had ruled that “by its broad purpose”, the kitty included a call to offset potential convictions against Mr. Dettinger, which was as such contrary to public order. It is today on this text that the deputies of the Nupes rely to try to cancel the kitty launched by the far right.
