Thousands of people entered France following activist Amine Kessaci’s call to take a stand against rising drug crimes in the country. According to the prefecture, more than 6,000 people took part in Marseille alone, television station BFMTV reported. There are also many politicians from various camps.
The trigger was the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Mehdi Kessaci, Amine’s younger brother, on November 13. He was shot dead from a motorbike in the southern French port city.
“He’s just guilty of being my brother”
Amine and his mother attended a memorial service at the crime scene. Later that evening, an audio message he had previously recorded was played there stressing his brother’s “innocence”: “He is only guilty for being my brother,” BFMTV reported. Mehdi is undergoing practical training and wants to join the police service.
Amine is the founder of the “Conscience” association, which supports families who… Drug crime affected. An activity considered to be a possible background to the murder.
The 22-year-old founded the club following the death of his half-brother Brahim, who was found dead in a burning car in 2020 in a drug trafficking settlement. Amine is under police protection. He just got the book in October «Marseille“Essuie tes larmes” (Marseille, dry your tears).
The act of “intimidation”
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez described the move as “intimidation”, a far cry from the “classic calculations” that occur dozens of times every year in Marseille’s drug base.
“Today everyone is being threatened, anyone who dares to speak out is being threatened,” said Amine on television station BFMTV.
“The client is in our prison”
According to information from the newspaper Le Parisien, the boss of the DZ Mafia drug gang could be the person behind the murder.
Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin wants to use the “no mobile phones behind bars” plan to prevent contract killings being controlled via mobile phones from prison. “The client is in our prison,” he explained, according to Le Monde. By 2024, 80,000 mobile phones will be confiscated in prisons in France.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:251122-930-327543/1
