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For years, Mehdi Meklat, a 24-year-old human rights activist and former Bondy Blog journalist – who, until last week, was hailed as one of France’s rising media stars – published “sickening” tweets under the pseudonym ‘Marcelin Deschamps’, a “provocative” but “fictional” character who, according to the young writer, “does not reflect his personal beliefs, values and morals”. On Twitter, Mr Meklat – writing as Marcelin Deschamps – threatened to kill Marine Le Pen. He wrote: “I am going to slit your throat Muslim-style.”

GETTY•MEHDI MEKLAT TWITTER*G.GARITAN Blogger Mehdi Meklat came under fire for threatening to kill Marine Le Pen

The journalist is also guilty of apologising terrorism and anti-Semitism: hiding behind his ‘fictional’ character, he praised Islamic terrorist Mohammed Merah, said that he “really missed Osama bin Laden” and that we should “bring back Hitler”. He also said that he wanted to “rape” former Charlie Hebdo editor-in-chief, Charb – one of the victims of the January 2015 terrorist attacks – with a “Laguiole knife”. On Saturday, Mr Meklat cleaned his Twitter account – he went from 50,000 to 503 tweets – and issued a public apology, branding his hateful tweets as “obsolete” and “irrelevant”.

Things you didn't know about Marine Le Pen Fri, May 5, 2017 Marine Le Pen is a French politician who is the president of the National Front, a national-conservative political party in France and one of its main political forces. Play slideshow AFP/Getty Images 1 of 10 Described as more democratic and republican than her nationalist father, she has led a movement of "de-demonization of the Front National" to detoxify it and soften its image

MEHDI MEKLAT TWITTER Mr Meklat published his provocative tweets under a pseudonym

He tweeted: “I’m sorry if some of you were shocked by my tweets. They are obsolete… The words of my fictional character do not reflect my own personal thoughts and beliefs, quite the opposite. Via Marcelin Deschamps, a provocative character, I was trying to encourage critical thinking.”

I am going to slit your throat Muslim-style Mehdi Meklat

His apology, however, has largely fallen on deaf ears. On Sunday, Marion Marechal Le Pen, Mrs Le Pen’s niece, tweeted: “Praising Merah, threats, homophobia, hate and anti-Semitism. Why is the press protecting @mehdi_meklat?”

MEHDI MEKLAT TWITTER The blogger publicly tweeted apologies to his followers

MEHDI MEKLAT TWITTER Marion Marechal Le Pen criticised Mr Meklat for his actions