Eleven held in France over killing of far-right activist

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 in the killing of a far-right activist last weekend in Lyon, according to the Lyon prosecutor’s office, which has opened a murder investigation.

Among those arrested were at least 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 is now up to the investigation to determine responsibility,” Mr. Arnault said on X.

Another of Mr. Arnault’s assistants and one of his former interns were also among the detained, French media outlets reported. The prosecutor did not immediately confirm the report and Mr. Arnault did not respond 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 site, but said he was not “the author 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 other four 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 at least 48 hours.

Both 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 year, set to take place 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 such as Italy, where Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said it was “a wound for the whole of Europe”, where “a climate of ideological hatred” is spreading.

The LFI’s national coordinator Manuel Bompard said his party was in no way responsible 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 had to be evacuated after police secured the scene and found no explosives. — Reuters