She is being probed over a social media post she published last week expressing solidarity with Japanese terrorist Kōzō Okamoto, who was convicted of a terrorist attack that killed 26 people at Tel Aviv airport in 1972.
French extreme-left Member of the European Parliament Rima Hassan was put under police custody in Paris on Thursday in the framework of an investigation into ‘’apology of terrorism.’’
A few grams of synthetic drugs were also found in her bag when she was taken into police custody.
Hassan, who is a member of the extreme-left ‘La France Insoumise’ (France Unbowed), is being probed for a social media post she wrote last week expressing solidarity with Japanese terrorist Kōzō Okamoto, who was convicted of a terrorist attack that killed 26 people at Lod airport (the current Ben Gurion’s Tela Viv International Airport in 1972. A former member of the Japanese Red Army, he sentenced to life in prison for participating in the massacre.. A crime classified as a terrorist act.
A French far-right lawmaker, Matthias Renault, had alerted French prosecutors to Hassan’s post. In his letter to the prosecutor, he quoted Hassan’s post as reading: “Kōzō 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 RN lawmaker points out that Kōzō Okamoto, a former member of the Japanese Red Army, was sentenced to life in prison for participating in the massacre of 26 people at Ben-Gurion International Airport in Israel in 1972. A crime classified as a terrorist act.
“Finally, the beginning of the end of impunity for the France Unbowed lawmaker!” Renault said.
This is not the first time the Member of the European Parliament has been accused of glorifying terrorism. In December 2024, a complaint was filed against her by the Jewish Observatory of France, accompanied by several screenshots of Rima Hassan’s posts on X.
Notably, one message in which she referred to “the Palestinian armed resistance.” “If Franco-Israelis are allowed to serve in the Israeli army while enjoying the benefits of dual citizenship, Then any Franco-Palestinian must be able to join the Palestinian armed resistance, whose legitimacy is recognized by United Nations resolutions regarding the right of peoples to self-determination,” she wrote.
Hassan was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syri.
Last year, almost hundred members of the French Senate from right and center parties have urged European Parliament President Roberta Metsola to lift the parliamentary immunity of Rima Hassan after her remarks legitimizing the actions of Hamas.
“The European Union cannot remain silent in the face of statements that undermine the values of peace and mutual respect on which it is founded”, the 94 Senators said.
For them, Rima Hassan’s comments “go beyond the framework of legitimate freedom of expression and are part of an unacceptable radicalization dynamic”. The parliamentary immunity enjoyed by Rima Hassan as an MEP “cannot be misused to protect speech that incites hatred or compromises public order”, they argue.
Rima Hassan had triggered a political and judicial outcry when she recognized “the legitimate action of Hamas”, which justifies “armed struggle in a context of colonization”.
In a radio interview, one day after Shiri Bibas and her two children, Ariel and Kfir, were laid to rest in Israel, she claimed that they were not murdered by the Palestinian terrorist organization and pointed the finger of responsibility at the “occupation and colonization regime imposed by Israel”.
Article 9 of the European Parliament’s Rules of Procedure states that “any request addressed to the President by a competent authority of a Member State […] with a view to waiving the immunity of a Member […] shall be announced in plenary sitting and referred to the committee responsible”.