Banned Blogs

According to a legal source, a judicial file was opened Tuesday after three people were arrested, suspected of having incited riots on their internet blogs.

Two of the three suspects, a French and a Ghanaian teenager aged 16 and 18, appeared before a judge in criminal court, charged with “using the internet to voluntarily provoking a dangerous degradation for people.”

The court has requested that they be held in temporary custody, a question that a release judge should rule on Tuesday night. They were arrested Monday at Noisy-le-Sec and Bondy (Seine-Saint-Denis).

It is the first time charges have been laid in Paris regarding this crime, which is covered in the legislation regarding the press. Possible sentences range up to five years in prison.
The third suspect, a 14 year old, was picked up in Aix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône), and was released after his court appearance. He is not being prosecuted at the moment, due to a procedural error.

The three young people are suspected of having incited people to riot and having made threats against the police on their blogs, all of which were hosted by Skyrock radio.

These blogs, which were called "Nike la France" [“Fuck France”] and "Nique l'Etat" [“Fuck the State”] as well as "Sarkodead" and "Hardcore", encouraged people to participate in the violence in the suburbs and to attack police officers.

They were de-activated by Skyrock last week end. “Unite and smash the cops,” could be read on one of them.

An investigation has been launched to determine who the accused may be connected to and to determine whether or not their activities were part of an organized operation to spread the riots.

A police bureau which specialized in crimes using new technologies, the OCLTIS, as well as the Police Squad for the Repression of Banditism (OCRB) [what in the United States would be called racketeering – translator] are involved.