Polemicist Eric Zemmour was sentenced Friday to a fine of 10,000 euros for insult and incitement to hatred after a violent diatribe on Islam and immigration in September 2019 during a political rally in Paris.
The Paris court condemned the 62-year-old columnist for comments made on September 28, 2019, at the opening of a meeting called the “right-wing convention” and organized by relatives of the former member of the National Front (now RN ) Marion Maréchal.
The court considered “that by distinguishing among the French all Muslims opposed to the '' native French '' and by designating them, as well as Muslim immigrants living in France, not only as criminals perpetrators of the 2015 attacks but like former colonized people who became colonizers ”, the words pursued“ constitute an exhortation, sometimes implicit and sometimes explicit, to discrimination and to hatred towards the Muslim community and its religion ”.
"Opinions, even shocking ones, must be able to be expressed, nevertheless the alleged facts go further and exceed the limits of freedom of expression since they are abusive remarks towards a community and its religion", indicated the president of the 17th correctional chamber.
The court also underlined that the speech had been "prepared" and the words "chosen", recalling that Mr. Zemmour had been definitively condemned, a few days before the facts, to 3,000 euros of fine for anti-Muslim remarks, the Court of Cassation having dismissed his appeal.
In this case, he appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Controversial
During the hearing on July 1, the prosecution requested a fine of 10,000 euros, with the possibility of imprisonment in the event of non-payment.
"I consider that the court has not made a fair application of the law and I plan to appeal", reacted to AFP the lawyer of the person concerned, Olivier Pardo, assuring to have "won a number of 'business, not before the court, but before the court of appeal or the Court of Cassation ”.
The speech had at the time been widely denounced in the political class and it had caused a bitter debate in the media for which Eric Zemmour worked.
Despite the intense controversy, the columnist was subsequently hired by CNews, where he appears on a daily show.
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This conviction "will probably not change anything in the short term as to its presence on CNews."
But it will now be a little more obvious that this channel trades in hate, to which the advertisers who pass advertisements there must be more and more aware ”, reacted Friday SOS Racism in a press release.
The association La Maison des Potes, also a civil party, "asks televisions and radios to take the necessary decisions against Eric Zemmour, as they were able to take against Dieudonné following his convictions".
On the other hand, the LCI channel, which had broadcast all of the remarks live, will not ultimately be judged in this case, the court having declared null on September 17 the citation concerning it, for a question of procedure.
