The Paris prosecutor’s office has appealed a judicial move that could see the release of far-left Antifa extremist leader Antonin Bernanos.
Mr Bernanos is currently in pre-trial detention after being arrested in April but a judge ruled earlier this month to not extend the pre-trial jailing past the 18th of August, allowing the Antifa leader to be released back on the streets, Le Parisien reports.
The April arrest came after he, along with several other Antifa members, fought with right-wing activists near Notre Dame cathedral on the 15th of the month, the same day the cathedral caught fire and its historic roof was destroyed.
Arié Alimi, the lawyer for the 24-year-old far-left extremist, reacted to the appeal stating that the prosecutor’s office had become a “judicial arm of the Ministry of the Interior”.
Similar comments were made by the ultra-left pro-Antifa Libérons-Les (Let’s Free Them) group, which called it “judicial persecution, a political decision because Antonin represents all those people who challenge the Macronist policy”.
‘#WeAreAntifa’: Trump Comments Trigger Outpouring of Support for Extreme-Left Antifa in Germany https://t.co/JMVYiBeJ7G
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 30, 2019
The prosecutor’s appeal comes only days after French police expressed concerns over the possible release of Bernanos, arguing that he may organise far-left extremists to disrupt the upcoming G7 summit in Biarritz that is scheduled for later this month.
Antifa in France has made frequent menacing threats toward the government of President Emmanuel Macron in recent years, including threats to police and intelligence officials made by Antifa operating in northern Syria last year.
The far-left group, which U.S. President Donald Trump called to label a terrorist organisation late last month, is active in countries across western Europe and North America.
The group is especially active in Germany where supporters took to social media to protest the group being labelled terrorists. Supporters of the group, which has been involved in politically motivated violence on multiple occasions in Germany, included members of the far-left party Die Linke (The Left) and the German Green Party.
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