European Parliament member Rima Hassan taken into French police custody

Members of Hassan’s La France Insoumise party condemn detention as part of effort to ‘intimidate’ Palestine supporters.European Parliament member Rima Hassan has been detained in France on suspicion of “apology for terrorism”, French media outlets are reporting, in a move members of her left-wing La France Insoumise (LFI) party say aims to silence Palestine supporters.Le Parisien newspaper reported on Thursday that Hassan was detained in relation to an investigation into a social media post that referenced Kozo Okamoto, who took part in a deadly attack at Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport in 1972.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Israel deports Greta Thunberg and other Gaza flotilla activistslist 2 of 3Israel intercepts Freedom Flotilla Coalition vessels en route to Gazalist 3 of 3Activists announce new, bigger aid flotilla to set sail for Gaza in Marchend of listHassan had deleted the post on X, Le Parisien said.Jean-Luc Melenchon, the founder of LFI, said in a social media post on Thursday that Hassan’s detention related to a retweet from last month. “So there is no longer parliamentary immunity in France. Intolerable,” he wrote on X.Le Parisien and the AFP news agency also reported that a small amount of “synthetic drugs” was found on Hassan when she was taken into police custody.Hassan and her lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Reuters news agency on her detention.Hassan, a French-Palestinian lawyer and activist, was elected to the European Parliament in 2024.The 33-year-old has been a prominent critic of Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and she took part in a Gaza-bound flotilla that was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters in October 2025.Her Palestine advocacy has drawn the ire of pro-Israel groups and figures in France and other countries.Last week, Hassan said she was denied entry to Canada, where she was expected to take part in meetings and speaking engagements, in what she described as an act of censorship.