The trial of five people prosecuted for insults and death threats against the comic strip author Bastien Vivès, targeted by an investigation for the dissemination of child pornography images, was postponed on Monday until June, due to the absence of a document in the file.
The court pronounced
"a contradictory referral for all the defendants"
due to the absence in the file of Bastien Vivès' complaint against one of the defendants and too large a number of files to be processed before the 30th room Monday.
The five defendants were to be tried by the Paris criminal court for having insulted and threatened to kill the designer on social networks.
The hearing will be held on June 13, said the president.
Also read: Who wants the skin of the turbulent and provocative Bastien Vivès?
Kalashnikov
The alleged facts date back to December 2022. In the run-up to the Angoulême international comics festival, which takes place every year at the end of January, an exhibition dedicated to the cartoonist had sparked controversy due to several works by Bastien Vivès accused of promoting pedophilia.
The exhibition
In the Eyes of Bastien Vivès
was finally canceled in mid-December after multiple
“threats”
made against the designer on social networks.
According to a source close to the case, one of the defendants is being prosecuted for having sent to the comic book author, from his Instagram account, an image of a Kalashnikov accompanied by the words
“cure for pedophilia”
.
Threats of physical harm, made on this same social network but also on X, in crude and violent language, as well as insults targeting the sexual orientation of the author are also accused of the defendants, according to this same source.
In January 2023, a preliminary investigation into the dissemination of child pornography images was opened after a complaint from the Foundation for Children association targeting Bastien Vivès and two publishing houses, Glénat and Les Requins Marteaux.
The complaint concerned three of his comics featuring minors having sexual relations with adults, published between 2011 and 2018 (
The Melons of Anger
,
The Mental Discharge
and
Petit Paul
).
A first report, made after the publication of
Petit Paul
and requesting the withdrawal of this comic, was closed without action by the Nanterre public prosecutor's office in February 2019.
The defendants face up to three years in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros.