Not funny: Fake jihadists fined over Cannes Film Festival stunt

Organisers of stunt prosecuted for aggravated violence

LOS ANGELES: The three masterminds behind a public stunt featuring fake jihadist attackers — which sparked much panic at this year’s Cannes Film Festival — have been fined €2,500 ($2,800).

The incident saw six men wearing combat gear and masks sweep up to the luxurious Eden Roc hotel in a high-powered dinghy that displayed a black flag, made to look like the one used by members of the Islamic State (IS) group. The production team had also hired a helicopter to fly low overhead as the dinghy approached the Cap d’Antibes on the French Riviera.

“They came in on a dinghy, dressed in black to film themselves as if it was an invasion by Daesh and they really scared people who were swimming in the sea,” prosecutor Thierry Bonifay told a court near Cannes, using the Arabic name for IS.

The organisers of the stunt were prosecuted for “aggravated violence.” Four more people, who were also actors taking part in the stunt, have been cleared. According to a report published in Nice Matin newspaper, the team making the commercial for a website had no official permission to do so.

IS claimed responsibility for coordinated attacks on Paris in November last year, which saw 130 people killed. The group also claimed one of its followers drove a truck that killed 86 people on the Nice seafront, along the south coast from Cannes, on July 14.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19^th, 2016.

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