Far-left anti-Israel French politician Rima Hassan visited a ‘Palestinian prisoner’ without mentioning that the man in question is imprisoned for terrorism and attempted murder of Israelis.
On Monday, Hassan – along with LFI lawmakers Gabrielle Cathala and Thomas Portes, and Green Party MP Sabrina Sebaihi – paid a visit to Ali in the Val d’Oise prison. She described Ali as a Palestinian who had been granted refugee status in France but has been “held in pretrial detention for two years on the basis of accusations from the Israeli colonial state.”
“France has stripped him of his refugee status and sided with his oppressor without even waiting for him to be tried,” she wrote on X.
Ali was indeed recognized as a refugee by the National Court of Asylum (CNDA) in 2020, however, his status was withdrawn by the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA) in February 2025.
Ali was indicted in May 2024 for “terrorist criminal association, financing terrorism, and complicity in attempted murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise” and imprisoned.
En visite dans la maison d’arrêt du Val d’Oise où Ali, un palestinien qui avait obtenu le statut de réfugié en France, est emprisonné depuis 2 ans sur la seule base d’informations envoyées par Israël. https://t.co/REyCLbCleq pic.twitter.com/lnLcVHdEmn
— Rima Hassan (@RimaHas) May 25, 2026
French lawmakers break prison rules during visit with Palestinian detainee facing life sentence
These offenses relate to acts allegedly committed in the territories occupied by Israel between April and September 2023. Ali, presumed innocent, disputes all the accusations. The latter, he explains, would have come from Israel.
These attacks were said to have been carried out on Israelis in the West Bank in early 2023. At the time, a source close to the case told French media that the investigation opened after communication from the Israeli justice system to the French authorities.
None of this was mentioned by Hassan or a compatriot in their discussion of the visit.
Additionally, according to Europe 1, the group of politicians broke the rules of the prison visit. The rules are: lawmakers may not discuss detainees’ legal cases, only their detention conditions. They are also not allowed to request a specific detainee unless a judge authorizes it.
A prison administration cannot stop a parliamentarian from accessing any place of detention in France.
However, Europe 1 reported that Rima Hassan spoke with Ali in Arabic, a language prohibited in this context, gave him several hugs, and discussed aspects of his legal proceedings.
Ali faces the possibility of life imprisonment.
He has become something of a martyr figure in pro-Palestine spaces. An Instagram page, Committee for the Liberation of Ali, was created to organize protesters and activists in support of his release.
A protest is planned for this Saturday.
