The far-right essayist Alain Soral was definitively condemned for "
public insult
" after the publication in 2019 on the Internet of a snapshot showing him performing a "
quenelle
", after the rejection on Tuesday January 18 of his appeal in cassation, according to the judgment consulted by AFP.
“
The conviction of Mr. Bonnet [the real name of Alain Soral] on the count of racial public insult
” is “
final
”, writes the Court of Cassation.
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On January 6, 2021, the Colmar Court of Appeal sentenced him for "
public insult on the grounds of origin, ethnicity, nation, race or religion
" after the broadcast on Twitter and his website of a photo taken on May 5, 2019 showing him making a "
quenelle
" in front of the Colmar court.
Relaxed at first instance, he was this time sentenced to pay "
150 day-fine of a unit amount of 150 euros
", which means that in the event of total or partial default in payment, he will be imprisoned for a period corresponding the number of unpaid day-fines.
An “anti-Semitic meaning”
The "
quenelle
" (arm stretched downwards and opposite hand placed on the shoulder) was popularized by the polemicist Dieudonné, condemned several times for anti-Semitic statements, a gesture which he described as "
anti-system
". It is however "
notorious
" that this gesture is "
sometimes a false nose of anti-Semitism
", noted the Court of Appeal, recalling that Alain Soral had been convicted for having done it in the middle of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin . She noted that, “
in the spirit
” of Alain Soral, it therefore has an “ anti-
Semitic meaning
”. From then on, by broadcasting a photo of him making a “quenelle”,Alain Soral intended to "
persist and sign in an anti-Semitic provocation
".
In its judgment, the Court of Cassation also declared “
inadmissible
” the civil action of the Jewish consistory of Haut-Rhin, which had nevertheless obtained damages on appeal.
According to the highest French court, Alain Soral will also have to pay 2,500 euros to each of the other two civil parties, the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA) and SOS Racisme.
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Alain Soral has already been convicted twenty times, mostly for offenses of incitement to hatred, defamation and anti-Semitic insult.
In November, the Paris Court of Appeal upheld his sentence to day-fines for remarks attributing to the Jews the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States.