In a letter sent to the French government, five UN special rapporteurs demanded a response from authorities on the harassment and targeting of Rima Hassan.
Five UN special rapporteurs have expressed their “grave concern” over the harassment of French-Palestinian European parliament member, Rima Hassan, adding that she has been targeted due to her political and human rights activism.
The rapporteurs raised the alarm over the matter in an official letter sent to the French government, with the correspondence highlighting the “numerous legal prosecutions” filed against Hassan, and noting that such moves mark a growing trend by French authorities to supress pro-Palestine voices.
This official letter also comes following a request from Hassan and her legal team to document the violations and pressure she is facing.
According to details in the letter, which was sent in June, French authorities were given until the end of August to provide an official response before the document was made publicly available online.
The UN Special Rapporteurs, whose mandate involves freedom of opinion and expression, said: “These measures may constitute political and judicial harassment against Hassan and may form part of a growing trend by the French authorities to supress voices defending the rights of the Palestinian people”.
In their letter, the experts also raised concerns over “several human rights violations,” including the right to privacy, freedom of expression and non-discrimination.
The left-wing France Insoumise party, to which Rima Hassan belongs, welcomed the UN experts’ intervention, describing it as “an important political warning about the erosion of the rule of law in France and the use of the judiciary as a tool to suppress political debate.”
The party, led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, called on the government to address the concerns highlighted in the letter and stop exploiting anti-terrorism legislation to hinder democratic discourse.
The developments come as Hassan is due to appear before a French court in Paris on 19 and 20 October to stand trial on charges of “glorifying terrorism.”
The legal action stems from a formal referral by the French interior minister over a post the lawmaker shared on her X account in late March, where she made mention of Kozo Okamoto, one of the perpetrators of the 1972 Tel Aviv airport attack that resulted in 26 deaths. The post was later deleted.
The decision to place Hassan under pre-trial detention on 2 April sparked widespread backlash, with the lawmaker denouncing press leaks hinting at the presence of synthetic drugs in her bag, claims which were later refuted by investigations.
Hassan previously told* The New Arab *that her trial was “a political process” involving “the instrumentalisation of the judiciary and the distortion of counter-terrorism laws for the purposes of political repression.”
She said that, over the past two years, she had faced 16 legal proceedings, six police summonses and more than 45 hours of questioning in total.
She further said her case was part of what she described as a “growing dynamic of repression against voices expressing solidarity with Palestine” in France.
She pointed to an increase in legal proceedings, security interventions against student activism, and the banning of conferences and seminars related to Palestine.
Hassan also said that in her view, defending Palestine has now become grounds for security and judicial scrutiny, as well as media smear campaigns.
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