An influencer who mockingly asked what side dishes should accompany a baby who was allegedly burned in an oven has been given a 10-month suspended prison sentence.
A court in Paris today convicted 37-year-old Warda Anwar, also known as Haneia Nakei, after she was prosecuted for apologizing for terrorism and public incitement to hatred.
In a video published on the Parisian influencer's Instagram account, which has almost 11,000 followers at the time of publication, she responded to information reported by an Israeli rescuer, who claimed that they had found a baby taken by Hamas in a oven was installed during the terrorist group's invasion of Israel. .
She said: 'The story of the baby who was put in the oven… what will the guidance be? You didn't ask yourself the question?
Off-screen, a voice is heard saying, “What to eat with a baby paw?.. chips, ketchup… marinate it with salt and thyme, barbecue sauce.”
37-year-old Warda Anwar, also known as Haneia Nakei, (photo) received a ten-month suspended prison sentence
She said in the video, “The story of the baby who was put in the oven… what will be the guidance? You didn't ask yourself the question?
Prosecutor Grégory Weill told the court that the comments “caused a very great stir” and aimed to “ridicule the information coming from Israel,” and to “excuse Hamas of its barbarity” through an “extreme minimization of the terrorist act” against a background of 'conspiracy breeding ground', Le Parisien reports this.
The influencer denied claims that she was trying to provoke people, instead claiming that she was exposing “propaganda” and “media manipulation.”
“For me it doesn't exist, it's not possible that we could commit such an atrocity,” she said.
“It was misinterpreted, I was clumsy, but I didn't mean to harm anyone.”
Asked if she regretted releasing the video to her fans, she told the court: “I quite regret that I didn't have the intelligence to see and read them as I wanted the message convey.'
“For me it doesn't exist, it's not possible that we could commit such an atrocity,” she said of the baby's story
Referring to the attack in Paris in November 2015, she said: 'Terrorism is what we experienced in France, the Bataclan… it kills people indiscriminately'
She also refused to say that Hamas was a terrorist organization, although she admitted that the October 7 raid was a terrorist attack.
Referring to the attack in Paris in November 2015, she said: 'Terrorism is what we experienced in France, the Bataclan… it kills people indiscriminately, for an ideology. I have not advocated these things and never will.”
In addition to her 10-month prison sentence, which was suspended for two years, she must take a “citizenship course” to relearn the “values of the (French) Republic.”
She must also pay 1,000 euros in damages and 500 euros in legal costs to each of the six groups that initially filed the civil suit against her.
The video shocked France, with the country's interior minister asking the Paris prosecutor's office to investigate the case criminally.
Anwar's lawyer, Ilyacine Maallaoui, told MailOnline that he had appealed one of the charges, incitement to hatred, claiming it was a matter of freedom of expression under the French constitution, but said he and his client accepted the court's decision regarding the apology for terrorism. attack.
“As regards incitement to hatred, the (priority issue of constitutionality) follows its legal course before the Court of Cassation and ultimately before the Constitutional Council, in principle we remain in line with what we were able to express during the debates.”
