The Paris prosecutor's office quoted Eric Zemmour, columnist for
Le Figaro
, to appear on September 8 before the criminal court for "
incitement to discrimination
" and "
racial insults
" after comments about unaccompanied minor migrants, AFP learned on Friday 23rd. July with his lawyer, confirming information from
L'Obs
.
Read also: Presidential: LR and RN scrutinize the ambitions of Eric Zemmour
September 29, 2020 during a debate of the issue
facing the info
on
Cnews
devoted to the issue of unaccompanied minors after a bombing outside the former offices of
Charlie Hebdo
, Eric Zemmour had said: "
They will nothing to do here, they are thieves, they are murderers, they are rapists, that's all they are, they must be sent away and they must not even come
”. Two days later, the Paris prosecutor's office opened an investigation to examine whether these comments could be prosecuted before the criminal court.
A week earlier Eric Zemmour had been sentenced to a 10,000 euros fine, already for "
provocation to racial hatred
" and "
racist public insults
", for a diatribe on Islam and immigration during a political rally in the fall of 2019, broadcast live on LCI.
Read also: November 13: complaint from an association against Generation Z, movement in support of Eric Zemmour
"
I am surprised that it is still the prosecution that decides to prosecute my client, and not the associations,
" commented Mr. Olivier Pardo, his lawyer.
Showing serenity in the face of this new judicial deadline, Me Pardo underlined that "
Eric Zemmour has been prosecuted 12 times and we have won 10 times: one conviction was not contested on appeal by choice and the other
", for the speech on LCI, "
is pending before the European Court of Human Rights
" (ECHR) for comments in 2016 on Muslims.
Eric Zemmour targeted by several complaints
For statements on Cnews, the Superior Audiovisual Council has already sanctioned the Canal + group's news channel with a fine of 200,000 euros, last March, for "
incitement to hatred
" and "
to violence
”. The Canal + group had in the process "
deplored
" a decision contravening "
the principle of freedom of expression
" and announced wanting "
to implement possible remedies as soon as possible
". In this case, the associations SOS Racisme, Licra and Maison des Potes had announced their intention to become civil parties.
Since his arrival on CNews in October 2019, in the midst of a controversy over his remarks on Islam, complaints have multiplied against the news channel and the polemicist who has boosted his audiences,
Facing the news
bringing together an average of 700,000 viewers. Targeted in the press by several accusations of sexual assault, the writer and journalist was also pinned for the "
excess
" of his statements by the ethics committee of Canal +.
Eric Zemmour, to whom are lent with insistence the presidential intentions, never made explicit part of such a project, but the association of financing of the party "
The friends of Eric Zemmour
" was approved on July 1st by the National Campaign Accounts Commission.
