French influencer gets jail time for viral syringe-attack pranks
A French influencer is currently in jail for six months for his fake-syringe pranks on the public.
In a video shared on TikTok just before Fête de la Musique started in Paris on June 21, Ilan Magneron ("Amine Mojito" online) can be seen creeping up to unsuspecting individuals while holding an empty syringe. He then pretended to inject them before running off. The viral video, captioned Mojito le piqueur fou (the mad stinger) with laughing and syringe emojis, caught the people's alarmed reactions.
National outrage followed as the video went viral, reported The New York Post.
The pranks came amid public fear of increasing needle attacks at student parties and festivals throughout France. A many as 145 needle attacks were reported during the entirety of the music festival, but few ended up with concrete evidence. Amine Mojito's pranks, said the public prosecutor, may have inspired the spike in needle attacks.
Explaining his actions to the court, according to the police report, Mojito said, "I had the very bad idea of doing these pranks by imitating what I saw on the internet, in Spain, in Portugal. I didn't think it could hurt people. That was my mistake. I didn't think about others; I thought about myself."
Last month, prosecutors asked for Mojito to be sentenced to 15 months in prison, with five months suspended.
On Oct. 3, per Libération, the Paris Criminal Court handed down a sentence of 12 months in prison, with six months suspended, for "violence with a weapon that did not result in incapacity for work."
He was also fined $1,759.95 (around ₱102,400) and given a three-year ban on owning or carrying a weapon.
Social media users went online to express their dissatisfaction with the sentence, which they thought too lenient.
"Six months is not enough," wrote one user.
“The gesture is revolting, even with an empty syringe. The risk of spreading this kind of video is that crazies will imitate it with harmful substances,” said another.
“Even if it was a ‘prank,’ I imagine that some of the people who were tricked must have lived in terror at the thought of having been actually stabbed and contaminated by something,” a social media user wrote.
Mojito's lawyer, Marie Claret de Fleurieu, told Libération that the sentencing "restores a little balance between the preservation of public order and that of the fundamental rights of my client."
