The sentence imposed is lighter than the 10 months with conditional suspension requested by the Prosecutor’s Office for incitement to racial hatred for religious reasons.
The charges against the Algerian international are linked to a video of preacher Mahmoud al-Hasanat that Atal shared on his Instagram account, which has more than 3.2 million followers, five days after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 .
In the video, after speaking about the children killed in the attacks, Al-Hasanat called on God to send a “black day to the Jews” and to give a “helping hand” to those Gazans who attempted to do so.
Atal shared the video while at home supporting Algeria, only to delete it the following day after his club warned him of the possible consequences. He apologized in court, saying he wanted to send a “message of peace” and had not watched the entire 35-second video before posting it.
But neither the prosecution nor the plaintiffs, who included several Jewish organizations, found Atala’s explanations convincing. “The sharing of the video is intended to be part of his message and make it known. There is no mention of peace in those 35 seconds,” prosecutor Maggie Chowty said, according to AFP.
Atala’s lawyer, Antoine Vey, said in his defense that the verdict was “expected given the circumstances and strong political pressure” and indicated that they would likely appeal the decision to a higher court.
Despite the high-profile scandal, Atal was included in Algeria’s squad for the next Africa Cup of Nations and was widely supported at home.
Atals played for the sixth consecutive season in one of the strongest clubs in France, “Nice” (currently second in Ligue 1), in whose ranks he participated in 117 matches and scored 12 goals. Atals has been suspended from the team and has not played since the video was released. Furthermore, the French Football Federation sentenced him to a seven-match ban. Atala’s future at Nice is still unclear.
In his latest post on Instagram, Atal expressed the thought that it doesn’t kill, it makes stronger, creating the basis for new speculation about the true intentions of his October 12 post.
on October 7, 2023 approximately At 6.30 am local time, a particularly brutal attack by Hamas terrorists began, with a massive rocket attack from the Gaza Strip and the invasion of armed groups into Israel. During the attack, terrorists killed around 1,400 Israelis, mostly civilians, and captured more than 240 people, taking them to the Gaza Strip.
2024-01-05 14:05:55
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