The verdict has fallen. Pursued for two homophobic tweets published in March 2019, Agnès Cerighelli, opposition counselor in Saint-Germain-en-Laye was sentenced this Monday by the Versailles Criminal Court to a fine of 4,000 euros, including 2,000 euros for public insult because of sexual orientation.
It must also compensate, up to € 1,000 each, the five associations combating homophobia which had brought civil action. Finally, Agnès Cerighelli must delete within three days one of the two offending tweets - the other having already been deleted - and publish the judgment on her Twitter account within ten days.
On the other hand, the elected official was released on the grounds of "public provocation of hatred or violence because of sexual orientation" for which the prosecutor had required six months suspended sentence and 140 hours of community service.
This case represents for Agnès Cerighelli a first conviction which could well call for new ones. The elected official is indeed targeted by another procedure after Jean-Jacques Brot, the prefect of Yvelines and Arnaud Péricard, the mayor (DVD) of Saint-Germain-en-Laye made a report to the Versailles prosecutor for remarks Islamophobes held, still on Twitter in December 2019.
She remains a municipal candidate
This Sunday, it was the Minister of the Interior in person, Christophe Castaner, who said that he had taken legal action for "provocation to hatred" following the dissemination of new messages on the social network. "To want Paris and Marseille to be run by North Africans of Muslim faith is to betray France, its identity and its history," wrote Agnès Cerighelli in particular, referring to the candidacies of Rachida Dati (LR) and Samia Ghali (PS ) in the two major French cities. "To get used to this kind of slippage, to remain impassive in the face of such repugnant remarks, is to gain hatred and push back the Republic," replied Christophe Castaner.
"These abusive complaints registered by the police station of Saint-Germain-en-Laye aim to prohibit me any freedom of expression and to ruin me. The harassment of M.Castaner against me must stop ”reacted Agnès Cerighelli on Monday.
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The elected representative, who had been excluded from LREM in September 2018, is a candidate in the municipal elections in Saint-Germain. But as she explained on Sunday in the middle of the day on the social network, she would still miss "some running mate" to be able to introduce herself.
