Youcef Atal, an Algerian international football player, is on trial in France on Monday on charges of inciting hatred following the release of a video purporting to show a Palestinian preacher threatening Israel with a "black day."
The video was posted on Atal's 3.2 million-follower Instagram account, just after the attack on October 7 that left 1,139 people dead. Atal plays for Nice in the Ligue 1 league.
In an excerpt of the video that AFP saw, the preacher, Mahmoud Al Hasanat, began by discussing the situation of the children in Gaza.
Prosecutors claimed to have discovered a further passage in which he prayed for God to "send the Jews a black day" and to "steady the hands" of Gaza residents in case they were to "throw stones."
The 27-year-old defender, who swiftly deleted the message and apologized, was suspended by his team while prosecutors investigated the event for possible "terrorism justification."
However, after viewing the video and questioning the player, they abandoned that line of inquiry, instead charging him with "incitement to religious hatred."
Atal was brought by his lawyer, Antoine Vey, to the courts in the southern city of Nice.
According to an AFP photographer on the scene, he was followed by a group of people shouting "Algeria is with you" and "Long live Palestine."
The International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra) and the Jewish Observatory of France have both filed civil lawsuits against the player.
If proven guilty, Atal faces up to a year in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros ($49,000).
He has been placed under judicial monitoring and is not permitted to travel outside of the country unless to play professional football.
After the post, his team suspended him "until further notice," and the professional football league penalized him for seven games.
Some of Atal's Algerian teammates pleaded for mercy, claiming that he had apologized and had not viewed the video till the end before releasing it.
According to latest Israeli estimates, the worst Gaza war began on October 7 with massive Hamas strikes against Israel, in which the group killed 1,139 people, mostly civilians, and abducted roughly 250.
According to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, around 19,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Israel's following campaign in Gaza.
