A French court has sentenced a man to an eight-month suspended prison sentence for chanting “God is Great” in a supermarket in Saint-Etienne, central France, after hearing the news of the reopening of religious institutions in the north of the country that were closed due to Corona.
The 52-year-old was also fined 750 euros and deprived of his legal and civil rights for two years.
The French news agency said that the older man shouted “Allahu Akbar” three times while they were in a supermarket in the city on June 7.
It added that the man’s behavior caused panic in the place, and one of the customers fell while fleeing, dislocating his shoulder, and the store evacuated its workers and called the police.
The man said, during a court hearing on July 29, that he was happy after hearing the news of the reopening of religious institutions in the north of the country after they were closed under Covid health restrictions.
He added that his reaction was “emotional from the bottom of my heart, I was excited, it was a prayer, not a call to war.”
The representative of the Public Prosecution, who demanded a one-year suspended prison sentence for the two men, indicated that the 50-year-old had previously caused a state of panic and evacuated a church in Lyon in December 2016 during a funeral ceremony.
