In Marseilles, on February 21, 1995, during the presidential and municipal election campaign, Robert Lagier, Mario d'Ambrosio and Pierre Giglio, activists from the National Front, decided to go and stick up posters bearing the image of Jean-Marie The pen. They are armed with 22. Lr and 7,65 mm pistols. At the crossroads of Aygalades, in the 15th arrondissement of Marseille, Mario d'Ambrosio decides to ensure the surveillance of the posters which have just been pasted. The other two leave to stick further where they find themselves facing a group of young people of African origin from the rap group B.Vice1 running across the width of the street. They say they were assaulted and ran back to the crossroads where d'Ambrosio stayed. The teenagers say they were running so as not to miss their bus. Lagier fires a first time and one of the youngsters pretends to collapse. The group of young people flees by turning back. Two other shots slam, one of the bullets hits Ibrahim Ali, a 17-year-old Frenchman of Comorian origin, in the back. D'Ambrosio, in turn, fired at the youngsters. The firefighters, warned by a bar owner, arrive shortly after and discover a wound in the chest, in the back. Ali dies half an hour after being picked up.
Two days after the events, Bruno Mégret affirms that the murderer was " violently assaulted ": " if our gluers had not been armed, they would probably have died » ; he concludes that it was the fault of massive and uncontrolled immigration ". Jean-Marie Le Pen comments to his activists in these terms: “ At least this unfortunate incident drew general attention to the presence in Marseille of 50 Comorians. what are they doing there ? ".
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Lagier will maintain his version of the attack, and will repeat that the cars of the three FN activists were damaged by the group and that they defended themselves. The police who were the first on the spot, a few minutes after the tragedy, came to explain to the court that they did not find any stones on the spot, although Lagier said he distinctly heard impacts on his car this evening. there. Robert Lagier, the author of the fatal shot, is found guilty of intentional homicide, as well as attempted intentional homicides and violence with weapons. He was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment, while the Advocate General, Étienne Cecaldi, had requested 20 years against him. Mario d'Ambrosio, author of several shots, receives 10 years in prison for attempted voluntary homicide; the Assize Court exceeds the requisition of the Advocate General who had asked for 7 years in prison. Pierre Giglio, the leader of the group of poster pasters, was sentenced to two years in prison, one of which was suspended for carrying a weapon. Bruno Mégret was present at the helm to support the three activists. Released in 2002, D'Ambrosio was employed by the town hall of Vitrolles upon his release from prison. Robert Lagier dies of cancer in prison.
Singer Alex Beaupain alludes to this affair in his song Quitter la ville (on the album Garçon d'honneur, 2005); the Toulouse rock group Bruit qui court in the song La Mélancolie (on the album X, 2014); Le Rat Luciano of the Marseille rap group Fonky Family in the song Mystère et suspense (on the album Art de Rue, 2001); Anti Racist Soldiers by Spook and the Guay in 1998 in the album Mi Tierra. In May 2013, associations and elected officials in Marseille proposed to establish an “Ibrahim Ali day” every February 21. This initiative dedicated to “the fight against racism” is presented by various center and left-wing elected officials on the municipal council; it does not have the expected support and it is even denounced by the local leader of the National Front, Stéphane Ravier who evokes a “profanation”. In 2015, twenty years after the events, apart from an indicative plaque at the crossroads where Ibrahim Ali was shot, no commemoration seems to have been taken at the municipal level to honor the memory and the family of the victim. Only relatives and members of the Sound Musical School offer an annual commemoration on the Chemin des Aygalades (15th arrondissement of Marseille), as well as cultural and socio-educational interventions. In February 2021, the city council decided to rename Avenue des Aygalades Avenue Ibrahim-Ali. A plaque will be unveiled on February 21, 2021, 26 years after his death. A request to which Jean-Claude Gaudin, mayor LR, had never acceded.
"Today, the city of Marseille is doing justice by honoring one of its children. This February 21, 2021 marks the end of a silence. Marseille reconnects with its history by writing in capital letters the name of Ibrahim Ali on the avenue which crosses part of the northern districts, districts for too long ignored“said the socialist mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan, in front of hundreds of people.
