PARIS — Eleven people, including two aides to a French far-left lawmaker, were arrested in France overnight and early on Wednesday on suspicion of involvement within the killing of a far-right activist last weekend in Lyon, in line with the Lyon prosecutor’s office, which has opened a murder investigation.
Amongst those arrested were a minimum of one aide and two other people connected to Raphael Arnault, a lawmaker from far-left party France Unbowed (LFI), who said on Tuesday that the aide, Jacques-Elie Favrot, had “stopped all parliamentary work”.
“It’s now as much as the investigation to find out responsibility,” Mr. Arnault said on X.
One other of Mr. Arnault’s assistants and certainly one of his former interns were also among the many detained, French media outlets reported. The prosecutor didn’t immediately confirm the report and Mr. Arnault didn’t reply to emailed requests for comment.
Far-right activist Quentin Deranque, 23, died on Saturday after being beaten by hard-left activists outside a conference center in Lyon where Rima Hassan, a member of the European Parliament, was speaking.
Mr. Favrot’s lawyer Bertrand Sayn said his client has acknowledged committing violence and being present at the location, but said he was not “the writer of the blows that caused the death of Mr. Deranque.”
Videos of the confrontation were widely shared on social media. Ms. Hassan and other members of the LFI have condemned the killing.
Seven of the suspects detained were investigated for possible murder while the opposite 4 were investigated for helping others escape police searches, the prosecutor’s office said.
The suspects detained on Tuesday evening will remain in police custody for a minimum of 48 hours.
Each the hard left and hard right have been capitalizing on frustration with the minority centrist government ahead of local elections next month and a presidential vote next yr, set to happen in a highly polarized environment.
Jordan Bardella, party president of the far-right National Rally, has called for Mr. Arnault’s resignation.
“The left and the far-left have crossed an unacceptable red line in our democracy: respect for the opinions and physical integrity of their opponents,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
The death of Mr. Deranque has echoed in neighboring countries reminiscent of Italy, where Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said it was “a wound for the entire of Europe”, where “a climate of ideological hatred” is spreading.
The LFI’s national coordinator Manuel Bompard said his party was under no circumstances liable for Mr. Deranque’s death, and that it now felt threatened itself.
Shortly after the announcement of the arrests on Wednesday morning, the Paris headquarters of LFI received a bomb threat and needed to be evacuated after police secured the scene and located no explosives. — Reuters