France appoints magistrates in probe into Fox News cameraman death

The move marks a new stage in the investigation which had previously been run by anti-terror prosecutors with a view to possibly bringing charges of causing “deliberate harm to a person protected by international law” and a “deliberate attack against a civilian who was not taking part in hostilities”.

French prosecutors routinely open cases into the violent deaths of French citizens overseas.

Zakrzewski, 55, died in March 2022, only weeks after Russia attacked Ukraine, in Horenka, northeast of the capital Kyiv.

Ukrainian producer Oleksandra Kuvshynova also died and Fox correspondent Benjamin Hall was wounded when their vehicle was struck by incoming fire, according to Fox News.

The French investigation aims to identify who fired at the vehicle, and under what exact circumstances.

Zakrzewski was an experienced war zone cameraman who had previously covered conflicts for the US network in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.

France has opened 10 official probes into suspected war crimes against French nationals since Russia’s invasion on February 24th, 2022.

Three of them concern journalists.

Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff, working for French broadcaster BFMTV, died in May 2022 under artillery fire as he covered a humanitarian mission in eastern Ukraine.

In May 2023, AFP’s video coordinator in Ukraine, Arman Soldin, was killed during a Russian attack near the town of Bakhmut which Russia seized after months of brutal battles.

The Zakrzewski case is the first to be taken over by investigating magistrates.

The report – released on the eve of the World Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia – documents a 13 percent jump in anti-LGBTQ offences from 2022.

More serious crimes including assaults, threats, and harassment saw a 19 percent increase, with 2,870 instances recorded by French authorities.

“It feels like the embers of LGBTI-phobia have been lit, and now the fire is ready to take hold,” said president of French activist group SOS Homophobie Julia Torlet.

“What worries us most are the emerging trends…we are extremely concerned,” Torlet added, saying “if the government doesn’t act” France risks backsliding into the violence seen in 2013 over the legalisation of same-sex marriage.

The number of anti-LGBTQ incidents has risen sharply – about 17 percent on average each year for crimes and misdemeanours – since 2016, according to the interior ministry.

But these figures only paint part of the picture.

Men account for the majority of both victims and perpetrators in anti-LGBTQ incidents, accounting for 70 and 82 percent, respectively.

Moreover, the perpetrators are predominately young, with nearly half of all accused under 30 and more than a third under 19, says the report.

While the report says victims are now “better received” by authorities, only 20 percent of those subjected to threats or violence and five percent of victims of verbal abuse file a complaint.

“We’re past the worry stage,” spokesman for Stop Homophobie Maxime Haes told AFP.

Anti-LGBTQ acts are linked to the “drastic increase in LGBT-phobic discourse,” said Haes, which he says are fuelled by “the rise of the far right and religious extremism”.

The owner of a bar in Nantes, a city in western France, told regional newspaper Ouest-France it cancelled an LGBTQ-friendly event in early May over safety concerns after a poster featuring individuals in religious habits sparked an “outpouring of hate” online.

And in France, 60 percent of people avoid holding hands with same-sex partners for fear of being assaulted, according to a 2024 report from the European Agency for Fundamental Rights.

The country has also seen a spike in transphobic discourse, Haes said.

SOS Homophobie has denounced what it calls “abysmal government silence” and criticised the lack of “ambitious policy” on LGBTQ issues even after the appointment of out gay Prime Minister Gabriel Attal earlier this year.

“Hate speech is not being combatted at all by politicians,” Haes of Stop Homophobie added.

CRIME

France appoints magistrates in probe into Fox News cameraman death

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