The public prosecutor's office in Lyon has charged French activist Mila Orriols with “insulting someone based on their origin” after her harsh comments about North African migrants resurfaced in the media more than a year later.

Orriols first came to prominence in January 2020 when, at the age of 16, she was insulted by her Muslim classmates. At that time, she posted several comments on Instagram in which she described Islam as a “religion of hatred” and “shit.”

In February 2024, she posted a very “impulsive” status on the X network, as her lawyer described it at the hearing on October 21. She argued that the increased propensity for violence among Muslims was due to them being “products of incest.”

"That's an observation. A large proportion of Maghrebi families are blood relatives, and many of them have deformed and rather ugly faces and very small foreheads. This is especially true of these strange migrants who attack us every day on the streets,“ she wrote.

She deleted the post after ten minutes, but an anonymous user noticed it, took a screenshot, and filed a complaint with the public prosecutor's office. As the judge explained at the end of October, the mere fact that Oriols published her comment constitutes a ”hate crime." . The public prosecutor therefore proposed a suspended fine of €1,500.

Orriols is known to the French public because, at the age of 16, she responded to insults on Instagram from Muslim commentators who called her a “disgusting lesbian.” Just a few days earlier, she had publicly announced her sexual orientation.

Since the first videos were published on January 18, 2020, she says she has received around 50,000 threats, including death and mutilation threats. She has not been to school since January 20 and is under police protection. Since then, at least 11 people have been arrested and convicted, but the perpetrators received prison sentences of between four and six months.

In a radio interview, the then Minister of Justice, Nicole Belloubet, condemned the death threats against the young girl, but added that “insulting a religion is an attack on freedom of conscience.” This was met with massive criticism, for which the minister later apologized.

President Emmanuel Macron also commented on the case. Although he condemned the “stoking of anti-Islamic sentiment” in society, he sided with Orriols, arguing that “blasphemy is not a crime.”

At the trial, Orriols appeared before journalists and reiterated her position, but apologized for the tone in which she had conveyed her remarks. According to her, she has “numerous scientific studies” that prove that incest is a highly harmful practice. In fact, this is a well-known fact, even if some sociologists refer to it as endogamy.

As the daily newspaper Le Parisien reports, Orriols joined the organization Collectif Némésis as an adult, which is part of the Identitarian Movement. This is a right-wing extremist ethno-nationalist movement that also considers itself feminist and exclusively unites women between the ages of 18 and 30.