NICE
\nFrench police on Friday detained Algerian international Youcef Atal, who plays for Ligue 1 football side Nice, in a probe into suspected \u201cjustification of terrorism\u201d after he published a social media post on the Israel-Hamas war, prosecutors said.
\nLast month the 27-year-old defender was banned for seven matches over the post, which he quickly deleted and for which he subsequently issued an apology.
\nThe public prosecutor in Nice opened a probe following a request from the local prefect and mayor of Nice.
\nThe arrest means Atal can now be questioned by police in detention and could be charged, or released with no further immediate action taken, once the detention period expires.
\nAtal had already been suspended by his club \u201cuntil further notice\u201d.
\nDespite the player\u2019s apology, OGC Nice said that it decided to \u201ctake immediate\u201d action, \u201cprior\u201d to any sanctions that might be taken by sporting or judicial bodies, \u201cgiven the nature of the publication shared and its seriousness\u201d.<\/p>\n
In mid-October, the Nice public prosecutor announced the opening of an investigation into \u201cjustification of terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Atal has been criticised for sharing a video from a Palestinian preacher on Instagram,<\/p>\n
purportedly calling for violence against Jewish people.France, which has large Jewish and Muslim populations, ramped up security after Hamas launched massive attacks on Israel on October 7.<\/p>\n
Israeli officials say the attacks killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and about 240 people were taken hostage.<\/p>\n
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and its retaliatory air and ground offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed nearly 15,000 people, thousands of them children, according to the Hamas government of the Palestinian territory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NICE French police on Friday detained Algerian international Youcef Atal, who plays for Ligue 1 football side Nice, in a probe into suspected \u201cjustification of terrorism\u201d after he published a social media post on the Israel-Hamas war, prosecutors said. Last month the 27-year-old defender was banned for seven matches over the post, which he quickly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370424,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-370394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n