Death of Nahel: what will become of the fundraiser to support the policeman's family?

The fundraiser in support of the family of the policeman who killed Nahel in Nanterre was closed last night, after reaching more than 1.6 million euros in less than a week. Since its sharing on social networks, this collection has been controversial.

The prize pool of support for the policeman who killed Nahel exceeded 1.6 million euros. © GoFundMe screenshot

Text by: Martin Hortin

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Launched five days ago on the American funding platform GoFundMe, it is first the origin of the pot that has been criticized. It is the far-right polemicist Jean Messiha, former spokesman for Eric Zemmour, who is at the initiative.

The description used also raises questions. On the web page of the collection, one could read "Support for the family of the Nanterre police officer, Florian M. who did his job and who is paying a high price today", in reference to his indictment and incarceration, without the slightest word of compassion for Nahel's family.

We can also compare this fundraiser, which has collected more than 80,000 donations – for 1.6 million euros in total, with the one opened for the family of the 17-year-old. The latter works much less well and amounts for the moment to just over 400,000 euros. In recent days, many left-wing political figures have taken offense and called for the suspension of the fundraiser in support of the policeman.

Legal kitty?

Is it allowed to collect money for a person indicted for murder? The law says that it is indeed possible to use donations to pay legal costs, such as lawyers' fees. On the other hand, it is strictly forbidden to use this money to pay fines or damages decided by a judge.

As an example, we can mention the pot opened in 2019 to support Christophe Dettinger, this "yellow vest" and former professional boxer, who had hit two police officers on a footbridge in the center of Paris and had been convicted by the courts. The collection had been cancelled by the Paris court and the funds returned to the contributors.

The whole question is therefore to know what the money from the pot launched by Jean Messiha will be used for. The GoFundMe platform reacted on Monday and considers that there is no reason to remove the common pot: its rules of use are respected and it is to the family of the police officer that the money must be returned.

Legal proceedings

However, it is still possible that this collection will be deleted since legal proceedings are now underway. On Tuesday, just before the closing of the kitty, the lawyer of Nahel's family announced that a complaint was filed for organized fraud, misuse of personal data processing and concealment of these offenses. Statements to which Jean Messiha reacted, saying that he plans to file a complaint for defamation.

The deputies Nupes Mathilde Panot and Arthur Delaporte also seized the prosecutor of the Republic of Paris, but using another argument: the description used on the website could constitute a call to hatred and create a disturbance to public order.

Asked about the subject two days ago, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said that the fact that it was a person close to the far right who launched this pot probably did not help to promote appeasement. Before considering, like other members of the government, that it is now up to the justice to decide.

" READ ALSO Urban violence in France: the right "surfs" on the riots

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