Targeted by insults in a Boro700 track, Éric Ciotti refers the matter to the prosecutor

The mayor of Nice, Éric Ciotti, announced that he had referred the matter to the public prosecutor following the release of the song M*R*H by rapper Boro700. The track, listened to over 920,000 times on Spotify in less than a month, contains references to several Islamist attacks, threats targeting Nice’s political leaders and insulting remarks.

The mayor of Nice, Éric Ciotti, has referred the matter to the public prosecutor of Nice following the publication of the song M*R*H by Parisian rapper Boro700. Released on July 7 on streaming platforms, the track, whose name references terrorist Mohammed Merah, has exceeded 920,000 listens on Spotify in less than a month.

The text multiplies references to several terrorist attacks that have struck France as well as their perpetrators. The song notably mentions Mohammed Merah, author of the Toulouse and Montauban attacks in 2012, Salah Abdeslam, convicted for the November 13, 2015 attacks, as well as Adolf Hitler. Several passages also target Éric Ciotti and Christian Estrosi, with insults and threats also aimed at their loved ones: “Bataclan, playing dead, lay down, I’m going to shoot you in the eye, I f*** Estrosi and Ciotti’s wife, light up seven terraces (allusion to the ‘seven terraces’ and dining areas affected during the November 13, 2015 attacks, Editor’s note), we’re in the trenches”, can be heard at the beginning of the track.

In a letter addressed to the public prosecutor of Nice revealed by our colleagues at Europe 1 and dated August 3, Éric Ciotti believes that “The dissemination of such content, widely relayed on social networks, is likely to cause serious harm to the memory of terrorism victims, trivialize acts of extreme gravity and fuel a climate of hatred and intimidation toward public officials.”

The mayor of Nice thus asks the prosecutor to consider “the criminal charges that could be brought and the proceedings that should be initiated.”

Éric Ciotti also writes to the Interior Minister

In addition to this referral, Éric Ciotti sent a second letter to the Interior Minister, Laurent Nuñez. The mayor of Nice describes Boro700 as a “hate monger and recalls that freedom of expression can in no way justify the apology of terrorism, calls for violence, or the intimidation of public officials.”

In this letter, Éric Ciotti also emphasizes the particular significance of these remarks in Nice, ten years after the July 14, 2016 attack.

“Such remarks trivialize terrorist and criminal violence, cause unbearable harm to the memory of victims and contribute to spreading a culture of hatred incompatible with the values of the Republic, writes the mayor of Nice. This situation has particular resonance in Nice, a city devastated by the July 14, 2016 attack, whose ten-year anniversary we commemorated just a few weeks ago. Like all cities and all French people struck by terrorism, we know the price of these tragedies. For the families of victims, the wounded and all those who remain marked by these attacks, such remarks constitute an additional wound.”

The letter also mentions attacks targeting the loved ones of the two Nice political leaders. “Beyond references to terrorism, this song directly attacks Christian Estrosi and myself by choosing to attack our respective partners. This instrumentalization of our loved ones, through sexually explicit remarks of extreme vulgarity which I will refrain from reproducing, reveals a clear intention to intimidate public officials even in their most private sphere,” continues Éric Ciotti.

The song M*R*H remains accessible on the main streaming platforms at the time of the referral to the public prosecutor.