The conviction for contempt of a man who called Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin a “
dirty rapist
” during a ceremony honoring Father Hamel in 2020 was upheld on appeal on Thursday April 28, the court announced. call from Rouen.
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"
The Court of Appeal confirmed the judgment of first instance in all its provisions
", declared the president of the correctional appeals chamber.
The defendant, fitter in the automotive industry and member of the CGT, was tried for "
insult likely to undermine the dignity or respect due to the function
" of the minister "
in the exercise of his functions
".
"
Dirty rapist
"
In December 2020, the criminal court imposed on him at first instance a sentence of 100 day-fines at fifteen euros, or 1,500 euros.
If he does not pay this amount, he will have to serve one hundred days in prison.
“
We are waiting to learn the terms of the judgment and the motivation but we are very seriously considering an appeal in cassation
,” his lawyer Chloé Chalot told AFP on Thursday.
At the bar, the defendant had admitted having launched "
dirty rapist, Darmanin, dirty rapist
", while the Minister of the Interior was in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen, to deliver a speech of homage to Father Hamel, murdered in 2016.
Complaint for rape
"
Even if I know that I did not use the right words, I do not regret having spoken because it is one of the only ways to be heard at the moment
," he said.
Gérald Darmanin has been the subject since 2017 of a complaint for rape by a woman who had requested him in 2009 when he was in charge of the legal affairs department of the UMP (now Les Républicains), in an attempt to overturn a 2004 conviction for blackmailing and maliciously calling an ex-boyfriend.
According to her, Gérald Darmanin would have dangled his support from the Chancellery via a letter, in exchange for sexual favors which she would have accepted.
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For Gérald Darmanin, it was on the contrary a freely consented relationship.
Initially dismissed, the procedure was relaunched in June 2020 by the Paris Court of Appeal.
The minister was placed under assisted witness status in December 2020. The Paris prosecutor's office requested a dismissal last January.
