The Paris Court of Appeal confirmed on Thursday the acquittal pronounced at first instance against Jean-Marie Le Pen, tried for incitement to racial hatred for statements targeting several personalities committed against the far right.
On November 9, the court examined an appeal filed by three anti-racist associations against the former president of the National Front (FN, now National Rally), acquitted at first instance for these remarks made in 2014.
In a video then posted on his blog, Jean-Marie Le Pen, now 94 years old, then MEP, attacked artists committed against the FN like Guy Bedos, Madonna or Yannick Noah.
Read also50 years of the FN: Jean-Marie Le Pen, the cumbersome memory of the RN
While his interlocutor advanced him the name of Patrick Bruel, Mr. Le Pen had commented with a laugh: “
I am not surprised.
Listen, we'll make a batch next time
.
The Court of Appeal found that Jean-Marie Le Pen had committed no civil fault and confirmed the first instance decision.
On November 9, Me Sahand Saber, on behalf of the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra), a civil party, pleaded that the comments of the former leader of the FN against a singer of religion Jew had "
an inherently anti-Semitic and racist significance
".
His colleague Marie Mercier, counsel for SOS Racisme, also a civil party, felt that by targeting Patrick Bruel, “
it is the Jewish community as a whole that is targeted
”.
"
Fournée refers to oven which refers to the genocide of the Jews
," she pleaded.
The representative of the public prosecutor's office, who had not appealed after the release of the former presidential candidate, had recognized that "
the words (incriminated) are not innocent in the mouth
" of Jean-Marie Le Pen , but judged that "
they cannot be the subject of a conviction
".
Jean-Marie Le Pen's lawyer, absent at the hearing, Me Frédéric Joachim, had meanwhile denounced "
the nonsense of the procedure
", describing in passing the civil parties as "
scavengers
" and "
vultures
" at the against "
a 94-year-old man
".
