machouf-khadir and philippe-beauchamp acquitted of punching a press photographer

At the height of the student strike in Québec in 2012, Yalda Machouf-Khadir and Xavier Philippe-Beauchamp were charged with punching a press photographer during one of Machouf-Khadir’s court appearances. The two were recently acquitted of such charges. The judge could not find enough evidence to find them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Machouf-Khadir, an anarchist and the daughter of a prominent left-wing politician, is one of the protesters the University of Montréal sued in June 2013 for apparently damaging dozens of rooms in April 2012. She will be in court again on December 5 to be sentenced in three other cases related to the student strike. According to a May 21 Montréal Gazette article,

Yalda Machouf-Khadir, 20, pleaded guilty to one count of mischief in relation to a protest at the CEGEP du Vieux Montréal on Feb. 16, 2012 during which she and two other people pushed over a soft drink machine to try to block an entrance with it. She also admitted to conspiring to commit mischief, wearing a disguise while committing a criminal act and break and entry when students forcibly occupied and damaged the main pavilion of the Université de Montréal on April 12 and the office of then-education minister Line Beauchamp on April 13.

university of montréal sues six protesters for damages related to vandalism

On April 21, 2012, approximately 300 protesters forced their way into the University of Montréal and apparently damaged dozens of rooms. This week the University sued six of those protesters for a total of $100,000. Yalda Machouf-Khadir, an anarchist and the daughter of a prominent left-wing politician, is one of the six. According to today’s Winnipeg Free Press article,

The documents claim that Machouf-Khadir grabbed a wooden partition and used it to obstruct the view of campus police. She also allegedly used a black flag to prevent them from filming. The legal documents say the daughter of the Quebec solidaire politician also shoved around the campus cops and tried to remove a camera from one of their hands.

After the April 21 protest, Machouf-Khadir was one of several people rounded up in police raids on the morning of June 7, 2012. She and her partner were charged with crimes allegedly committed at the University on April 12 and at the education minister Line Beauchamp’s offices the following day. Her house was also searched, but the police mostly confiscated anarchist literature and anti-police flyers.