A fine of nearly 33,000 euros has been requested against the polemicist Dieudonné who appeared Monday, July 5 before the Geneva police court for denialist remarks he allegedly made during shows in Switzerland in 2019. The verdict will be rendered Thursday, July 8 in the afternoon.
Read also: Three convictions, four months in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros in one day for Dieudonné
Dieudonné M'Bala M'Bala, 55, is being prosecuted by the Geneva courts for “
racial discrimination
” for remarks he allegedly made about “
the gas chambers
” between January 4 and 6, 2019, at the Marens theater in Nyon, and on June 28 and 29, 2019, at the CAC Voltaire Cinematographic Animation Center in Geneva. He is also being prosecuted for “
insulting
” the Swiss Inter-Community Coordination Against Antisemitism and Defamation (Cicad), for comments made about this non-profit association during the performance on June 28. 2019. Dieudonné is also accused of "
defamation
”For comments made on November 22, 2019 concerning the secretary general of Cicad, Johanne Gurfinkiel, during an interview given on a YouTube channel in Geneva.
At the end of the day of hearing, to which Dieudonné answered questions from the court, the prosecutor Stéphane Grodecki, called for a sentence "
to 180 days fine, to 200 Swiss francs the day, without suspension
", namely 36,000 CHF. He also demanded that he be ordered to pay the costs of the trial. The prosecutor accused him of having "
minimized the Shoah by denying that the chambers existed
" and of having thus violated article 261 bis "
Discrimination and incitement to hatred
" of the Criminal Code, arguing that the "
interference in freedom of expression
”are not prohibited under certain conditions, including the public interest.
"
This trial is that of anti-Semitism, not freedom of expression,
" said Philippe Grumbach, lawyer for Cicad.
To which Me Pascal Junod, defender of Dieudonné retorted: "
We are putting laughter on trial, we are putting humor on trial
."
"
Astonished
" to find
yourself
in front of the Geneva court
Dieudonné had arrived in the morning smiling and apparently relaxed at his trial, wearing sunglasses, sneakers and a long blue tunic stamped with a green badge reproducing the shape of the African continent. Asked about these negationist remarks by the president of the tribunal, he explained that he “
absolutely does not deny the existence of the gas chambers, which were certainly underestimated by the horror of this war
”.
He pointed out that it is one of the characters in the show who utters the sentence referred to in the indictment, and that this sentence was written by the co-author of the show. He also said he was “
really surprised
” to find himself in front of the Geneva court, ironically about the fact that it is the first time that one of his characters has been tried.
Dieudonné has been convicted in France on numerous occasions for racial insults or incitement to hatred.
On Friday, he was sentenced in three separate cases to four months in prison and two fines of 10,000 and 5,000 euros, found guilty of "
public insult
" and "
incitement to hatred
".
He was also sentenced on appeal at the end of May to three years' imprisonment, two of which was firm, and a fine of 200,000 euros, for having embezzled more than one million euros of unrecorded revenue from his shows.
Asked about these many convictions, he told journalists in Geneva on Monday: “
Mandela was sentenced, and he was president.
Maybe I'll be president
”.