The video set off outrage in France and across the internet: A man stepping nonchalantly over a chain barrier beneath the Arc de Triomphe to light a cigarette from the eternal flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, reports The New York Times.
The man could face criminal charges in Paris, where he was arrested on Tuesday. The Paris Public Prosecutor’s office declined to name the man but said in a statement that he “acknowledges the facts” of the episode.
“This unworthy and deplorable act undermines the memory of those who died for France,” said Bruno Retailleau, France’s interior minister, on social media.
The suspect is a 47-year-old Moroccan man who is a legal resident of France, and is likely to have his residency permit revoked, according to a French official with knowledge of the matter who requested anonymity to discuss an ongoing legal process.
In France, violating a burial site, tomb, urn or monument can be punished by up to a year in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros (about $17,400).
France’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was installed in 1920 beneath the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, and holds the remains of an unknown French soldier who died in World War I. The flame was lit in 1923 and has burned since.
Read more of this report from The New York Times.