By Can Erozden
ANKARA (AA) – Algerian footballer Youcef Atal on Wednesday was handed a suspended eight months jail sentence for his social media post in support of people in the Gaza Strip, a local daily said.
French daily Nice-Matin reported that Atal, a Nice right-back, was handed an eight-month suspended prison sentence and fined €45,000 (approximately $49,000) by a French criminal court for "provoking hatred on grounds of religion."
Atal, 27, who won the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations with Algeria, shared an Instagram video in October in which a Palestinian preacher prayed to God to send "a black day for the Jews" amid Israel’s war on Gaza.
The Nice prosecutor previously opened an investigation on Oct. 16.
Then Atal apologized, but his French Ligue 1 club suspended him for the post, and the French league also banned him for seven matches.
Having 29 caps for Algeria, Atal joined Nice from Belgium's Kortrijk in 2018 to score 12 goals in 115 appearances for his current club.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, killing at least 22,313 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 57,296 others, according to Gaza’s health authorities.
Around 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack on Oct. 7.
Due to the Israeli onslaught, most of the enclave’s population of more than 2.2 million remains under siege and bombardment, displaced, and short of food and basic necessities.