About
Farid Ghilas, who nicknamed himself Farid de la Morlette is a French young man who filmed himself abusing a cat by throwing it onto a building et posted it on Facebook. The discovery of his video triggered an online outcry on the French web and a petition to make Farid arrested.
Origin
On January 22th 2014, Farid Ghilas[1] from Marseille, France, uploaded two mobile videos on his Facebook account in which he is seen throwing a cat onto the side of a building and killing it. In it, he presented himself as Farid de la Morlette, referencing La Maurelette, a neighborhood in Marseille. The videos were soon deleted after many people reacted violently on its disturbing animal-abusing content. Other people saved it and uploaded to Youtube to keep an online trace of the crime.
Warning : not for the faint-hearted
Spread and Online Reaction
Several French news sites reported on the videos, including Spi0n[2], éteignezvotreordinateur[3], 5minutesàtuer[4] and more formal news websites such as Belgian news Lameuse.be[7].
An online petition asking the French Secretary of Justice for Farid’s arrest was filled on Avaaz.org[5], gathering more than 75 000 signatures.
Farid’s Arrest
On January 31st, regional news outlet La Provence issued an headline[6] stating that Farid was arrested and charged with animal cruelty.
External References
[1]Farid Ghilas’s Facebook account
[2]Spi0n – Un marseillais torture un chat / 1-30-2014
[3]Eteignezvotreordinateur – Farid Ghilas (de la Morlette sur Facebook) torture un chat à Marseille
[4]5minutesàperdre – Farid Ghilas de la Morlette, tueur de chat à Marseille
[5]Avaaz.org – Mme Taubira et Mr Valls: une condamnation exemplaire
[6]La Provence – Interpellé après avoir diffusé sur Facebook des vidéos où il torture un chat
[7]La Meuse – Farid torture et jette un chat contre le mur: une pétition pour le faire condamner compte plus de 50.000 signatures