Overview

• Video captured on August 4 by a Latvian tourist circulated on TikTok and X shows a man lighting a cigarette at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier’s eternal flame beneath the Arc de Triomphe
• Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau confirmed the suspect’s arrest in Paris for violating a burial site and described the act as indecent
• Suspect Hamdi H. admitted to the offense in custody and now faces formal charges for desecrating a war memorial
• Veterans Minister Patricia Mirilles filed an immediate case with the Paris state prosecutor to impose sanctions and make an example of the offence
• Under French law, memorial desecration carries up to one year in prison, a €15,000 fine and, as now applied, revocation of the man’s residency permit pending possible deportation