Arrested this Wednesday, Rafik Meziane was the subject of a report on the PHAROS platform after the “republication of the video without comment”. At this stage, “nothing has been withheld” against this Algerian influencer, the prosecution said.
He “called for violent acts to be committed on French territory on TikTok”, assured on this Wednesday, January 22, 2025, the Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, loudly proud of the new arrest in the morning of an Algerian influencer on French territory. Born in 1976 in Algiers, Algeria, Rafik Meziane became the seventh Algerian influencer arrested since the beginning of the month in France, in a context of renewed tensions between Paris and Algiers. This man, who is approaching fifty, presents himself on social networks as a DJ. On TikTok, he has some 296,000 subscribers. He posts videos shot in Arabic, relays Le Figaro.
Concretely, what is he accused of? “The national center for the fight against online hatred (PNLH) is investigating a report made on the PHAROS platform and relating in particular to a republication of a video without comment,” detailed the prosecution, specifying that if a search had indeed took place, with the objective “to seize the computer equipment and verify whether or not material elements would make it possible to qualify an offense”, at this stage of the investigation, “nothing is being held against the person concerned”. Arrested in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, Rafik Meziane could not be taken into police custody this Wednesday, his state of health not allowing it. However, he should be heard during the day on Thursday by the police, we still believe. Le Figaro.
Bruno Retailleau cropped by the prosecution
The details of the prosecution on this affair were made shortly after Bruno Retailleau’s big announcement on social networks. The Minister of the Interior was accused by the prosecution of having orchestrated a “premature leak” of information. “Only the judicial authority is legitimate to communicate on a current legal case,” recalled the prosecution in a press release in which it also insisted on the fact that “a person who is not tried is presumed innocent”.