France man sentenced for death threats against Muslims on Facebook, Digi Mart USA News (Legé, Loire-Atlantique, France): The criminal court in Nantes on Monday, November 3, 2026, sentenced a 45-year-old resident of Legé (Loire-Atlantique) to six months in prison, suspended, according to France 3 Pays de la Loire. He had posted death threats against Muslims on Facebook, and the platform PHAROS received a report that led to his arrest on Friday, October 30.
Tried under the immediate appearance procedure, he appeared one week after the racist attack in Trappes, which killed a 26-year-old man. A maintenance technician, the defendant told the hearing that he switched on CNews when he came home from work.
He acknowledged that these broadcasts affected him, saying “it goes a bit too much to my head, I’m a sponge,” and added that he drank “one or two beers” or “a glass of red” to ease his “loneliness.”
His defense described his Facebook account as “an outlet” and a kind of “diary,” rather than evidence of a real intention to act. The national prosecutor, however, offered a different reading, describing a “staging” by a defendant “fed daily by continuous news channels” and by their “abundance of hateful information.” She stressed that he had “chosen to leave his profile open,” meaning his messages were visible to all internet users, which weighed in the assessment of their seriousness.
The court found the racist death threats established and imposed six months in prison, suspended. The case draws attention in the context of a national incident: on Friday, October 23, a 39-year-old man opened fire in Trappes and La Verrière in the Yvelines, killing Pengo Bossio Wangi, a 26-year-old MMA fighter, and wounding seven people, including a 12-year-old girl.
The national anti-terrorism prosecutor, Olivier Christen, said the suspect, who has been charged and placed in pretrial detention, admitted to having “specifically targeted people (…) of Muslim or African or North African type” and chose Trappes, which he considered “a lair of Islamists.” The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office is conducting the investigation, while Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is expected to preside over a national tribute, the date of which has yet to be set.
The victim’s father, Bolema Bossio Wangi, asked that the ceremony be “an opportunity for a real awakening and a commitment against racism.”
