The Court of Cassation canceled on Tuesday February 21 the conviction on appeal for contempt against a man who had called Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin a "
dirty rapist
" in 2020.
The highest court of the judiciary quashed and annulled this judgment of the Rouen Court of Appeal of April 28, 2022, indicating to refer the case "
to the Caen Court of Appeal
" for a new trial, specifies the judgment of February 21, which AFP obtained.
Sentenced at first instance to 100 day-fines of fifteen euros
"
Dirty rapist, Darmanin, dirty rapist
", had launched an adjuster in the automotive industry and member of the CGT in July 2020, while the Minister of the Interior was in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen , to deliver a speech of homage to Father Hamel, assassinated in 2016. Judged for "
insult likely to undermine the dignity or respect due to the function
" of the minister "
in the exercise of his functions
", he had was sentenced at first instance in December 2020 to a sentence of 100 day-fines at fifteen euros, or 1,500 euros and this sentence was confirmed on appeal in April 2022.
The Court of Cassation pointed out that a magistrate sat both in first instance and on appeal, which is not authorized by the texts of the European Court of Human Rights and the code of criminal procedure.
In 2017, a rape complaint against Gérald Darmanin was filed by a woman who had asked him in 2009 when he was in charge of the legal affairs department of the UMP (which has since become LR), in an attempt to make overturn a 2004 conviction for blackmailing and maliciously calling an ex-boyfriend.
The Paris Court of Appeal confirmed on January 24 a dismissal order from which Gérald Darmanin benefited.
The 50-year-old plaintiff, Sophie Patterson-Spatz, filed an appeal.