PARIS: Eleven people including an aide to a French far-left lawmaker were arrested in France overnight and early on Wednesday on suspicion of involvement in the killing of a far-right activist.
Shortly after the announcement, the Paris headquarters of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party received a bomb threat and had to be evacuated until the all-clear was given when police secured the scene.
Far-right activist Quentin Deranque, 23, died on Saturday after being beaten by hard-left activists outside a conference center in Lyon where Rima Hassan, an LFI member of the European Parliament, was speaking.
Videos of the confrontation were widely shared on social media. Hassan and other members of the LFI have condemned the killing.
The Lyon prosecutors’ office, which has opened a murder investigation, said 11 suspects have been detained so far. Among them is an aide to LFI lawmaker Raphael Arnault, who said on Tuesday that the aide had “stopped all parliamentary work.”
“It is now up to the investigation to determine responsibility,” Arnault said on X.
Both the hard left and hard right have been capitalizing on frustration with the minority centrist government ahead of local elections next month and a presidential vote next year, set to take place in a highly polarized environment.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, the LFI’s national coordinator Manuel Bompard said his party was in no way responsible for Deranque’s death, and that it now felt threatened itself.
Jordan Bardella, party president of the far-right National Rally, has accused LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon of opening the “doors of the National Assembly to presumed murderers.”
Eleven held in France over killing of far-right activist
https://arab.news/vzb9q
Eleven held in France over killing of far-right activist
- Far-right activist Quentin Deranque, 23, died on Saturday after being beaten by hard-left activists
- Videos of the confrontation were widely shared on social media
US designates Afghanistan as ‘state sponsor of wrongful detention’
- “The Taliban continues to use terrorist tactics, kidnapping individuals for ransom or to seek policy concessions,” Rubio says
WASHINGTON, United States: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Monday he has designated Afghanistan as a “State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention,” demanding Taliban authorities release two Americans and commit to ending its “hostage diplomacy.”
The move comes just over a week after Iran became the first country added to Washington’s new “wrongful detention” blacklist.
President Donald Trump in September signed an executive order that created the blacklist, similar to designations by the United States on terrorism.
“The Taliban continues to use terrorist tactics, kidnapping individuals for ransom or to seek policy concessions,” Rubio said in a statement.
He said it was “not safe for Americans to travel to Afghanistan because the Taliban continues to unjustly detain our fellow Americans and other foreign nationals.”
“The Taliban needs to release Dennis Coyle, Mahmoud Habibi, and all Americans unjustly detained in Afghanistan now and commit to cease the practice of hostage diplomacy forever,” he added.
Habibi, an Afghan-American businessman, previously served as Afghanistan’s director of civil aviation.
He was arrested in August 2022 in Kabul along with dozens of other employees of his telecommunications company, according to US authorities.
The State Department has issued a reward of $5 million for information leading to Habibi’s return.
Coyle is an academic from Colorado who worked for two decades in Afghanistan before being detained in January 2025, according to the James Foley Foundation.
