The high-profile fundraising campaign set up at the end of June for the French agent who shot 17-year-old Nahel has raised a total of more than 1.6 million euros. The amount has since been transferred to the account of the agent’s wife. That writes the French newspaper Le Parisien. The collection unleashed a wave of criticism, especially because a similar initiative for Nahel’s mother yields much less.
The support campaign on the GoFundMe platform was launched at the end of June by Jean Messiha, the ex-spokesman of the far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour. As many as tens of thousands of people contributed. But Nahel’s family filed a complaint against Messiha, after which the collection was stopped on July 4. Nevertheless, the former spokesman managed to raise a total amount of 1,635,680 euros.
That sum has now been deposited into the agent’s wife’s account, GoFundMe told Le Parisien. Her husband has been charged with voluntary manslaughter. The police officer shot 17-year-old Nahel on June 27 in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre after stopping the teenager during a traffic check. Nahel’s death caused great outrage and violent rioting in France.
LOOK. The video showing how the police officer shoots Nahel (17) went around the world
Legal costs
Messiha has received a lot of criticism in recent weeks for his “inappropriate and scandalous” fundraising campaign. According to the campaign’s opponents, the donated money could be embezzled and possibly used to pay the police officer’s legal costs, which would be illegal. But according to GoFundMe, the man’s wife has “committed in writing that the amount will not be used in any way for his defense or sentence reduction,” it says.
A collection campaign has also been organized for Nahel’s family, but so far it has “only” raised 482,103 euros, a lot less than the 1.6 million for the agent.
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