Former French basketball champ released after questioning over alleged support for terrorism

By Feiza Ben Mohamed

PARIS (AA) – A former French basketball champion, summoned by judicial police, emerged free pending a Paris prosecutor's decision on allegations that she supported terrorism.

After over two hours of questioning Thursday, Emilie Gomis, moved to tears, said she felt she had "paid the price" for her remarks on "the geopolitical situation."

"It's a sensitive subject, it's a subject that's beyond everyone. We're caught in a grinding machine so you have to be prepared to suffer the consequences," Gomis told Anadolu after her hearing.

"My mistake was not explaining my post. I admit that. I relied to a question to engage internet users about the tragedy of Oct. 7, but not only about Oct. 7,” she said referring to a surprise attack by Hamas on Israel, which killed some 1,200 people, but was followed by an Israeli attack on Gaza in which some 27,000 have been killed, with the number rising every day.

She continued: “The question is why did it happen? To understand, you have to delve deeper. Misfortune doesn't just happen, and it's not to justify anything.”

She added: "I condemn all acts of violence. I’m not in favor of violence, but it's important to understand the context to explain that there’s another way out than violence."

Two days after Oct. 7, Gomis posted a message online showing maps of France from 1947, 1967, and 2023, on which the French tricolor flag covers the territory before gradually being replaced by the Israeli flag, accompanied by the question: "What would you do in this situation?" – in effect, asking the French how they would feel if they were put in the place of Palestinians, whose land shrinks every day, by coercion and force.

Gomis has since had to resign from her position as honorary ambassador for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

-‘Disproportionate treatment’

While admitting that, due to her status as an ambassador for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, she should have maintained her neutrality, the Olympic champion said she "regrets" that the controversy has enabled her critics to attack this summer’s Olympics in Paris.

Vincent Brengarth, her lawyer, said the prosecutors’ “summons was absolutely uncalled for and we are facing manifestly disproportionate treatment of Emilie Gomis."

He emphasized that Gomis "has never sought to incite terrorism, never encouraged any act of violence in the slightest."

"I don't think anyone genuinely believes that Emilie Gomis intended to encourage violent actions. Considering her background and who she is – a Olympic champion – we should instead take pride in her and what she represents, rather than subjecting her to a disproportionately harsh procedure," Brengarth told Anadolu.

Prosecutors are expected to announce their decision on the former basketball player in the coming weeks, following a complaint filed against her.

Gomis is not the only athlete to have faced legal proceedings for a social media material denouncing Israel's actions.

In January, Algerian international footballer Youcef Atal got an eight-month suspended prison and a €45,000 ($48,513) fine for "incitement to hatred" after sharing a video calling for "a black day for the Jews."

Israel launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip following an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas, killing at least 27,947 Palestinians and injuring 67,459 others, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

An interim ruling last month by the International Court of Justice told Israel to cease its abuses, but most international observers say it has been flouting the ruling.