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Across social media, far-right activists and politicians have spread the names of multiple individuals they claim were involved in the killing of Quentin Deranque, a 23-year-old far-right activist who was fatally beaten by a group of youths in the city of Lyon on 12 February and died two days later.
According to French prosecutors cited by French media, four men in their twenties were detained on Tuesday evening. Among them is Jacques-Élie Favrot, the parliamentary assistant to far-left France Unbowed MP Raphaël Arnault.
Arnault is also the co-founder of the Jeune Garde, an anti-fascist organisation dissolved by the government in June 2025.
The news follows a flood of conflicting narratives and misinformation about the suspects’ identities, which came before the arrests, accompanied by a stream of false images of Deranque.
What led to Deranque’s death?
The events leading to his death occurred on the sidelines of a conference held by far-left MEP Rima Hassan held at the Institute of Political Studies (more commonly known as Sciences Po).
According to a testimony from the far-right feminist collective Némésis, Deranque and “around 15 other men” were present to offer them security assistance for a protest they staged outside the conference.
In their statement, Némésis stated that these men were unable to carry out their security duties because they were being chased by a mob of “anti-fascist activists”.
According to the Lyon Public Prosecutor’s Office, later that evening, Deranque and two other individuals “were thrown to the ground and beaten repeatedly by at least six individuals”.
“Two managed to escape, while Quentin Deranque remained on the ground,” the prosecutor’s office said.
Even though Némésis claims that Deranque was aiding their security, his family lawyer said on 13 February that he was “neither a security guard nor a member of any stewarding or security service” and that he had “no criminal record”.
Left-wing activists targeted despite lack of evidence
The names, addresses and photographs of a number of alleged suspects have been shared online — even though their names are not among those suspects officially announced to the public — in turn exposing them and their families to online harassment.
In a series of social media posts, Blandine Bardinet was identified as one of the alleged suspects, namely by far-right activists, such as Damien Rieu in a now-deleted X post.
Rieu shared multiple, unrelated images of the young woman alongside video footage of the killing of Deranque, in an apparent bid to highlight the fact that she was wearing the same coat as one of the young man’s attackers.
Ndong Eurydice, a local politician for the far-right Reconquête political party, also spread Bardinet’s name and surname, alleging she had been “formally identified”, even though this is not the case as of the time of writing.
Bardinet’s lawyer, Raphaël Kempf, told Euronews’s fact-checking team, The Cube, that they would take legal action against the individuals who spread false claims about Bardinet.
“Complaints will be filed against individuals who continue to relay these lies, and they will have to explain themselves in court,” he said in an emailed statement. “For several days now, various far-right influencers have been acting like police investigators and prosecutors, treating their followers like a jury and naming names, inciting waves of hatred and threats.”
“In their quest for revenge, they wrongly identified Blandine Bardinet as having been present in Lyon on the evening of Thursday, February 12, at the scene of Quentin D.’s death,” he said. “They did not hesitate to embellish their theory with a false analysis of a screenshot.”
Kempf shut down allegations that his client could have participated in the killing of Deranque, asserting that she had “left France to travel abroad the day before, Wednesday, February 11, for a planned stay of several months.”
“It is therefore clear that she does not appear in the photo and that she was wrongly identified by Damien Rieu, Mila Orriols, Jean-Eudes Gannat, Eurydice Ndong, and the UNI, among others,” he added.
According to social media posts, Bardinet has been involved in the anti-fascist Jeune Garde movement.
“Blandine Bardinet was an activist with the Jeune Garde, driven by her anti-fascist convictions and the need to fight against the far right and the spread of its ideas and practices,” Kempf said. “Since June 12, 2025, she has complied with the decree dissolving the Jeune Garde.”
In a press statement released on Sunday, the Jeune Garde denied its responsibility for what it described as “tragic events” which took place in Lyon, stating that it had “suspended all its activities” following the dissolution.
In an interview with French public broadcaster France 2 the same day, France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez pointed to the possible responsibility of the Jeune Garde in Deranque’s killing.
“The investigation will confirm whether or not they were Jeune Garde activists,” he said. “But the evidence clearly points in that direction.”
The Lyon Public Prosecutor’s office did not respond to our questions regarding the formal identification of the suspects, following separate reports from French media who, citing police sources, stated that investigators had “formally” identified five suspects, amplifying speculation surrounding the names shared online before Tuesday’s arrests.
During a press conference held on Monday, the prosecutor’s office confirmed that Deranque had been attacked “by at least six individuals.”
Fake photos of Quentin Deranque spread online
Elsewhere on social media, several photos claiming to show Deranque have been circulating on social media since the incident.
In reality, the only authentic photo of him was released by his family was published in the French newspaper Le Figaro.
One image, which has been widely shared and supposedly shows Deranque, actually depicts Dylan Guichaoua, a local representative for the youth branch of the far-right National Rally party in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department of France.
Guiachaou’s image also appeared on French flags displayed at a tribute rally held in Paris on Sunday.
Responding to the viral posts, Guichaoua published a statement on Facebook, denouncing the misuse of his identity, stating he had “no connection to the events mentioned, and even less to the attack and the death of Quentin”.
Other alleged images of Deranque bearing the caption “his name was Quentin” actually use the photograph of Quentin Piron, a 23-year-old Belgian who died in a road accident in 2024.
Artificial intelligence has also been used to generate images of Deranque, which have in turn been picked up by far-right accounts, with captions such as, “The far left kills. Support for Quentin”.
In total, The Cube identified at least six false images of Quentin circulating online.
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