By now, you might have seen this video making the rounds on social media. It’s been viewed 71 million times on Twitter alone.
The video is of Jawad Bendaoud, 32, who was jailed last week in Paris for lending his flat to two men who allegedly took part in the 2015 Paris attacks, in which 130 people were killed.
In 2008, Bendaoud was convicted of the manslaughter of a 16-year-old only named as David. The court was told the pair were friends.
But that’s not the first time Bendaoud has gone viral. He initially went viral for his statement to the media following the Paris attacks where he was taken in for questioning live on camera.
He said, “They asked me to help them, I helped.
“They told me to put up two people for three nights and I helped. I don’t know where they came from.
“If I knew, you believe that I would have put them up?”
From that clip, French people started to make fun of Bendaoud to the point where a whole parody account of him was made on Twitter.
According to French site Nouvelobs, an event with 200,000 people attending titled “Soiree Pyjama chez Jawad” (pajama party at Jawad’s house) was created to mock him further.
It said that on the page they called him “the Landlord of Daesh.”
The original court case took place in February 2018, where Bendaoud was acquitted as the judge said there was insufficient evidence that could prove he knew the attackers were terrorists.
According to AP, when he was initially cleared, Bendaoud raised his fist in victory and blew kisses to the public and his lawyers in front of the news.
Prosecutors announced that they were going to appeal the decision immediately.
The Times of Israel reported that relatives of the victims were not happy with Bendaoud’s behavior in the courtroom. Patrick, whose daughter Nathalie was killed, said, “I’m not laughing. I’m not here to see a show.”
Le Figaro reported that Bendaoud was sentenced by the Paris appeals court to one year on a separate charge of threatening a victim of the attacks in the corridors of the courthouse.
And now in 2019, Bendaoud is being clowned yet again with this short clip of him leaving court.
Bendaoud was sentenced to four years in prison for renting his house to the Paris attackers.
Salah Abdeslam, who is the only surviving man who was involved in the attacks, may not be tried in court until late 2020.
People have been finding the video relatable, and it’s been dubbed the tough guy entrance meme.
BuzzFeed News spoke to the Twitter user @MohamedJellit, who clipped the meme.
He said he found the responses on the tweet funny. He said, “Yes, I knew that this man was in a court for a terrorist offense but that’s all, I have no opinion about him.”
And it’s gone beyond the video.
A lot of people were worried when they realized that they were sharing a video of a man who had been arrested for a terrorist offense.