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Sarkozy: Visiting hate and terror websites will be punished

Published time: March 22, 2012 13:58
Edited time: March 22, 2012 18:25

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has spoken out strongly against extremism, but urged his countrymen not to stigmatize Muslims, after a 32-hour siege that resulted in the death of a radical Islamist gunman who confessed to killing seven people.

Sarkozy has proposed a raft of new anti-terrorist measures.

Speaking in a press conference straight after the end of the siege in Toulouse, the French president said anyone regularly visiting websites "justifying terrorism" or "preaching hatred and violence" would be prosecuted.

Sarkozy also called for punishments to those who travel to radical Islamic camps, even if they commit no crimes on French soil.

It is suspected that the Mohamed Merah, the gunman who numbered three Jewish children among his victims, visited Afghanistan and Pakistan on several occasions, fighting alongside the Taliban. Merah claimed links with Al-Qaeda during the siege.

The French president also called for an investigation whether the French prison system has become a “breeding ground” for “ideological indoctrination” and “forced recruitment” into terrorist cells.

Merah had been arrested on more than 10 occasions, and had several stints in confinement.

Sarkozy also emphasized that the vast majority of Muslims "have nothing to do with these crazy terrorists," and urged unity, saying “the French republic is always the strongest.”

Regarding the death of Merah, Sarkozy said that the authorities “did everything in their power to capture him alive,” and that they will now investigate whether he had any accomplices helping him carry out the audacious shootings in recent weeks.

After persistently struggling in the polls in his bid for re-election later this year, Nicolas Sarkozy’s leadership throughout the shootings and siege has boosted his electoral rating, and he is now the first-place candidate with 30 per cent of the vote.

The Toulouse murders and the operation of the alleged killer might bring additional political scores to Nicolas Sarkozy ahead of the future presidential elections, writer Diana Johnstone told RT.

“He [Sarkozy] has completely dominated the television screens for a couple of days as a result of this and shoved the other candidates into the shadows at the time when it was supposed to be the beginning of the campaign,” she said. “So as a matter of fact, Sarkozy just by being present everywhere has already profited from this.”


Comments (42)

Marc1 30.03.2012 22:00

Jews have always manipulated the Western Christianity and Islam - setting both of these against the Eastern Christianity.  This is most obvious today in their creation of Al-Qaeda and their support of Sunni extremism.  Jews themselves also admit that they are behind the West's emigration policies and failed multiculturalism; which, by the way, they would newer allow to happen in Israel.

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temudjin1155 30.03.2012 13:23

Or wrote in #4
Don't you see any problem with this decision regarding freedom of information? Is their constitution even compatible with this? You can't punish someone who hasn't commited a crime. How can people accept anything these days?! The problem with Sarkozy's rhetoric is that he considers a person presumed to be guilty instead of presumed to be innocent (and he said it long time ago). This completely put the principles of justice upside down and french people are so brainwashed they're just incapable of reacting to such statement.
As I said before, Sarkozy owns the media via his friends. His campaign is going to get the benefit from this story and french people are now so full of hatred they just won't get it they're going to re elect fascist who ordered to kill a guy instead of applying the rule of due process. He's not that different from Obama and the result is now he wants to wipe freedom of speech out. Actualy, even historians and journalists won't be able to do their jobs for studying some "suspicious" websites as they would be considered criminals too. This guy is insane

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Ashraf (unregistered) 25.03.2012 20:18

This kind of terrorist acts is a dream come true for a warmonger like Sarkozy......These warmongers killed more that million muslims all over the world......his countinious actions against Muslims ......Such as attack in Libya and Supporting Srian opposition &being aginst Muslim womens head cover and his countnious bigot statemens .......Now he is going to use this as an excuse and close all the websites that are exposing their crimes and committe more crimes as they did after the 9/11 ......It is shameful that the real CRIMINAL LIKE ZARKOZY and other ZIONITS, ignore their own behavier as the ROOT cause of these young mans terrorist actions......Hope French people will kick this man of office next month......he is the REAL terrorists......The man acting as a terrorist was an idiot responding to the mass murders committed by real terrorists like Sarkozy in the muslim Nations......

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