{"id":70581,"date":"2026-08-27T15:43:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T15:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/70581\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T15:43:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T15:43:26","slug":"irish-man-arrested-over-alleged-anti-semitic-death-threat-to-couple-in-french-supermarket-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/70581\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish man arrested over alleged anti-Semitic death threat to couple in French supermarket \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">An Irish man in his 60s has been arrested in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/france\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/france\">France<\/a> on suspicion of making anti-Semitic threats against an Australian Jewish couple in a supermarket this month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The man was arrested in Avignon, southeast France, according to the AFP newswire, following inquiries made by the Marseilles and Avignon police investigative units.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Hate speech, including public expressions of anti-Semitism, can result in up to a year in prison or a maximum fine of \u20ac45,000 on conviction under French hate speech laws. Aggravated speech, such as death threats, is punishable by up to five years in prison. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A video of the alleged incident was posted online shortly after it is said to have taken place and has since circulated widely. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The footage appears to show the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, telling a woman: \u201cYou get the f**k away from me before I put a f**king bullet in your head.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The video begins with the woman, whose face is not shown on camera, saying: \u201cPaddy the Irishman just told us he\u2019s sorry that Hitler didn\u2019t finish the job.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The video seems to have started after he is alleged to have said this. He is recorded responding to his alleged remark by saying: \u201cYou\u2019re in Europe here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">French interior minister Laurent Nu\u00f1ez said: \u201cA suspect has been arrested and will be held accountable for his actions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cBravo to the police for their investigation into the anti-Semitic threats and comments made against tourists this summer at a supermarket,\u201d said Nu\u00f1ez, a former police chief in Paris whose current political post is similar to that of an Irish minister for justice. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cAnti-Semitism must be fought firmly and relentlessly,\u201d he said in a statement posted on social media on Wednesday evening. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Two other French government ministers have commented on the widely circulated video of the alleged incident. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cNo tourist should be confronted, threatened or discriminated against because of who they are or what they believe. Anti-Semitic acts are an affront to our values and have no place in our country,\u201d said Serge Papin, a business minister. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cFrance will never accept anti-Semitism and hate. Our country is particularly committed [to this] especially since October 7th, 2023, and it will remain in place for as long as is necessary to ensure that no one ever has to endure hatred because of their origin,\u201d added Aurore Berg\u00e9, a gender-equality minister. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cPart of the incident, which was filmed and widely shared on social media, reflects a level of violence that is both shocking and unacceptable. Such remarks, which explicitly invoke the memory of the Holocaust, cannot be trivialised or tolerated,\u201d the ministers said in a joint statement. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Department of Foreign Affairs has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Irish man in his 60s has been arrested in France on suspicion of making anti-Semitic threats against&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[73,5,6544,5824,489,332],"class_list":["post-70581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-horror","tag-rape","tag-sexual-abuse","tag-trial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}