These are five young people who are good in every way.
One dreams of becoming a police officer or magistrate, the other is at Sciences Po or in engineering school ... However, they were on Wednesday March 24 in court for having called for hatred against the Asian community on the Twitter network.
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They are not denying the facts.
On October 28, 2020, as President Emmanuel Macron announced a second lockdown, hate messages against “
the Chinese
” and the Asian community in general spread on Twitter.
An investigation demanded by the prosecution will lift the anonymity of several accounts that have published hate speech including that of the five defendants.
Four other people, minors at the time of the facts, will subsequently appear before a court appropriate to their age.
None of the defendants, aged 19 to 25, has a criminal record.
Only one of them is assisted by a lawyer.
The offending tweets are read at the hearing.
Several are terribly offensive.
All are targeting the Chinese community accused of having a link with the coronavirus.
Alexis D., 21, a student in an engineering school, explains his gesture by feeling "
fed up with the announcement of confinement
".
“
I saw that other people had this kind of thing.
I stupidly followed the movement without thinking,
”he explains.
"
Are you a racist sir?
», Asks a lawyer of the civil parties.
“
No!
(...) What I wrote, I don't really
mean it,
but I now understand the racist nature behind these comments,
”he said.
During this period, "
our families were more afraid of being attacked in the street than of the Covid
", testifies Jacques Hua, a Parisian merchant of Chinese origin.
Between real and virtual
Imad R., 25, another defendant, awkwardly tries to explain that his twitter account was "
humorous
".
The offending tweet, which he does not admit to having written, nevertheless called for “
beating
” students studying Chinese.
It was "
unacceptable
", "
it's racism,
" he admits today.
The tweet from 19-year-old Dylan B. spoke of "
extinguishing all light of hope
" in Chinese eyes.
“
I regret.
I wrote it out of anger over the coronavirus.
I was not aware of my words,
”he defends himself.
Ziad B., a 2nd year student at Sciences Po Paris on the Menton campus, is the only defendant assisted by a lawyer.
20 years old, he is upset.
He is being prosecuted for having responded, in the manner of the one-upmanship, to a tweet which called for “
assaulting every Chinese
” crossed in the street.
The young man apologizes.
"
I put a barrier between the real and the virtual (...) I forgot that it could be taken up on such a large scale
", he analyzes.
Civil party lawyers claim damages for the associations they represent.
Only one lawyer is calling for jail.
The prosecutor who is part of the National Pole against online hatred, recently created within the Paris prosecutor's office, recalls that "
the words we use on the internet are not trivial
" and have "
an impact
".
“
Between words and deeds, the border is porous and this misguided use of social networks is dangerous,
” she underlines.
But she wants to believe in the "
educational value
" of this trial.
She claims for the five defendants "
a citizenship course
".
The judgment will be rendered on May 26.
