A T-shirt worn by a 3-year-old boy named Jihad has led to an unusual criminal trial in France that tests the limits of free speech — and common sense — in a nation increasingly uneasy with its growing Muslim population. On the front, the T-shirt said, “I am a bomb”. The back of it said, “Jihad born Sept. 11.”The prosecution and the defense have both said the outcome is likely to set a legal precedent.
The case in Sorgues, a small town just north of Avignon, began Sept. 25 at an unlikely place: the Ramieres de Sorgues municipal nursery. While dressing the children after a lunch break, a teacher became alarmed about the T-shirt worn by Jihad.
Although Jihad was, in fact, born on Sept. 11, the teacher saw an outrageous reference to Islamic war and the Sept. 11 attacks. Concerned, she spoke with the principal, who also became upset and called in JihadÂ’s Moroccan-born mother, Bouchra Bagour.
Told of the indignation produced by her sonÂ’s T-shirt, the single mother apologized for the trouble and said she had no intention of conveying a political message via her toddler. She said the shirt would be put away for good.
But the issue did not stop there. The principal wrote a report to school district authorities. A copy of the report landed on the desk of Sorgues Mayor Thierry Lagneau.
The mayor said in an interview that he regarded the T-shirt as a “provocation,” and immediately took action. Lagneau wrote a letter to the region’s chief prosecutor asking for an investigation for possible criminal prosecution and a “thorough” probe by child welfare authorities to determine whether Bagour was a fit mother.
Before long, Bagour and her brother, Zeyad Bagour, were called in separately by national police and asked about their religious and political leanings.
The mother was interrogated for about an hour and released. Her brother, who had bought the shirt in Avignon and given it to Jihad, said he was kept in custody for four hours, including more than two hours in a holding cell. The brother's lawyer, Soliman Makouh, said, “The questions were scandalous."
After the police investigation, no terror-related charges were brought. But the prosecutor did decide to charge Bagour and her brother with “apology for crime,” which under a 1981 French law carries a penalty of up to five years in prison and a $58,000 fine.
Zeyad Bagour said he didn't understand what all the fuss was about. He bought the T-shirt without thinking of any political message, he claimed.
The front already had the words “I am a bomb” printed on it, but he had understood that as an expression meaning “I am a real looker.”
As for the back, he said, he just wanted to put down his nephew’s name and date of birth. He recalled, “I did it on a lark. It wasn’t even meant as a joke.”
For Lagneau, however, the T-shirt was more than a joke, it was a deliberate call to Islamic jihad. He hired a lawyer and joined the criminal prosecution, making the city what in French law is known as a “civil party,” claiming to have suffered from an alleged crime.
The mayor said, “They knew very well what they were doing. There is no ambiguity possible.”
At a four-hour trial on March 6, Deputy Prosecutor Olivier Couvignou also portrayed the shirt as a deliberate political message. He asked the judges to impose a fine of $4,000 on the brother and $1,300 on the mother.
Claude Avril, Lagneau’s lawyer, asked for around the same amount but has since dropped the request to a symbolic €1, according to the mayor.
In the event of a conviction, the main punishment would be a criminal record that would make employment and probably put both Bouchra and Zeyad Bagour on watch lists in airports around the world.
Soliman and Bouchra’s lawyer argued that neither defendant was a militant and neither had intended to make a political message. They argued that the T-shirt was a private affair, and that it did not correspond to the legal definition of “apology for crime.”
After hearing the arguments, the court took the case under advisement and promised to hand down its verdict April 10.
Makouh accused the mayor of acting out of political interest, to win anti-immigrant voters in municipal elections scheduled next year. He said, “This area is like Mississippi in the United States during the civil rights struggle."
