Foix (France) (AFP) - A French vegan activist was handed a suspended prison term on Thursday for condoning terrorism after writing on Facebook that "justice" had been served when a butcher was killed during an Islamist attack last week, a legal source said. The unusual case, being prosecuted under France’s tough anti-terror security laws, was to be heard in the town of Saint-Gaudens in southwest France. Police in the region spotted a message overnight on Monday-Tuesday related to the killing of a butcher at the Super U supermarket in Trebes last week during an attack by a gunman claiming allegiance to the Islamic State group, the source said. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

“So then, you are shocked that a murderer is killed by a terrorist,” wrote the vegan and activist for animal rights. I’ve got zero compassion for him, there’s some justice in it.”

The message sparked instant criticism and complaints and the author later withdrew it, the legal source said, but prosecutors decided to press charges for condoning terrorism anyway. The charge can be brought against anyone suspected of approving terrorism or commenting on it favorably. Doing so on the internet carries a maximum seven-year jail term and a fine of up to 100,000 euros ($125,000). A left-wing French activist who had stood for parliament last June, Stephane Poussier, was handed a one-year suspended jail term on Tuesday over comments he posted on Twitter over the same attack last Friday. “Whenever a policeman is shot… I think of my friend Remi Fraisse,” Poussier had written on Twitter, referring to an environmental activist killed by a stun grenade fired by police during a 2014 protest over a dam. "And this time it was a colonel, great! Additionally, it means one less Macron voter," he added. President Emmanuel Macron led tributes on Wednesday at a national commemoration for the officer, Arnaud Beltrame, a colonel in the local paramilitary police.
A French animal rights activist is charged under counterterror legislation for praising the death of a butcher in a terror attack.