A French social media influencer has been sentenced to six months in prison after a series of staged syringe attacks on unsuspecting members of the public in Paris, filmed and posted online for millions of viewers.
Ilan M., known to his TikTok audience as Amine Mojito, was 27 at the time of the offences. He approached strangers on the street and jabbed at them with what appeared to be a real syringe, capturing their distress on camera. Though the needles were capped and contained no substance, victims were left believing they had been injected with something harmful. Several required medical assessments in the aftermath.
A court handed down a one-year custodial sentence, with six months suspended. Ilan will serve the remainder behind bars, with his future conduct a factor in any further proceedings.
The case drew particular attention because of its timing. At the time the videos were filmed and circulated, France had been gripped by widespread public anxiety over reports of needle attacks in crowded venues. Across the country, concertgoers and nightclub patrons had come forward claiming to have been pricked by strangers, prompting significant media coverage and public concern. Against that backdrop, prosecutors argued that Ilan’s content did not merely cause individual harm — it actively contributed to a broader climate of fear.
In court, Ilan sought to contextualise his actions, telling the judge he had been inspired by similar videos he had seen produced in Spain and Portugal. “I didn’t think it could hurt people,” he said, according to reports from Oddity Central. “That was my mistake. I didn’t think of others. I thought of myself.” He described the videos as “a very bad idea.”
The admission did little to alter the prosecution’s position. Lawyers argued that the videos had normalised the targeting of strangers in public spaces and amplified existing societal anxieties around needle crime.
One victim told the court the experience had been “a nightmare,” describing hours spent believing they had been infected with a virus. The judge acknowledged that while no actual injections took place, the psychological consequences for those targeted were significant and genuine.
Ilan’s videos had accumulated millions of views before his arrest, with the content shared widely across platforms. The case has since prompted renewed discussion in France about the legal boundaries of filmed pranks and the responsibilities of those who profit from public fear.
