Ibrahim Ali (France)

Ibrahim Ali (1978 – 1995) was a seventeen-year-old French-man with Comorian origins killed in Marseille, France, on February 21 1995.

He was walking with a group of ten other young men in Marseilles' XVth arrondissement, when they encountered three supporters of Jean-Marie Le Pen's Front National party who had been posting campaign signs nearby, armed with guns. The latter group opened fire on them. Ibrahim Ali was shot in the back.

Le Pen himself used the publicity as an opportunity to justify his political platform, saying: :"at least this unfortunate incident has brought to everyone's attention the presence in Marseille of 50,000 Comorians. What are they doing here?" ( [http://www.themilitant.com/1995/5920/5920_13.html] ).

On the other hand, Bruno Mégret declared: "the blame is on massive and uncontrolled immigration... if our billstickers hadn't been armed, they would have probably been dead." ("Le Méridional", February 23, 1995)

The three Front National supporters were convicted of his murder. Robert Lagier was sentenced to fifteen years in prison, Mario Ambrosio ten years, and Pierre Giglio two years. Bruno Mégret (current leader of the National Republican Movement far right party) supported the activists in court, while Ambrosio was then employed by Vitrolles's municipality, detained from 1997 to 2002 by Bruno Mégret's wife, Catherine.