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France has reportedly stripped the residency permit of a man who lit a cigarette at a war memorial in Paris after he was caught on camera.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau on Tuesday called the actions of a 47-year-old Moroccan man “indecent and pathetic” following his arrest. Video footage of him lighting a cigarette beneath the much-visited Arc de Triomphe sparked outrage after it was circulated.
“The man who desecrated the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by lighting a cigarette with the memorial flame was arrested in Paris for violating a burial site, tomb, urn, or monument erected in memory of the dead. He was taken into custody and admitted the facts,” Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau wrote on X.
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France’s President Emmanuel Macron (L) delivers a speech on May 8 beside the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe for the 80th anniversary of VE Day, or Victory in Europe Day, marking the end of World War II in Europe, in Paris. (THOMAS SAMSON/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
On Wednesday, France’s Interior Ministry announced that the unidentified man had been stripped of his residency permit, Politico reported.
The Unknown Soldier War Memorial contains a flame and the tomb of a soldier killed in World War I under an arch of the Arc de Triomphe.
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The Eternal Flame in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, dedicated to the dead of World War I, circa 1970. (Harvey Meston/Archive Photos/Getty Images)
Footage of the incident shows a man kneeling beside the memorial, which appears to be off limits to visitors. He is seen leaning over the flame emitting from the memorial to light his cigarette before immediately leaving, as the stunned tourists watch.
The man reportedly has legal status in France and was known to police, according to local reports.
Patricia Miralles, the deputy minister for Memory and Veterans’ Affairs, said she was “outraged” by what happened.
Cars drive on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées with the Arc de Triomphe visible in the background, Paris, Thursday, May 7, 2020. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File)
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“Walking on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Lighting his cigarette with the eternal flame. This is not a mere misstep: it is a desecration,” she wrote on X. “France will never tolerate the tarnishing of the memory of those who died for her. Never.”