The prosecutor requested the maximum penalty.
A fine of 1,500 euros, including 300 euros suspended, was requested Thursday against the former captain of the French football team Patrice Évra, tried for homophobic insult at the police court in Paris, for remarks targeting PSG dating from 2019. The 41-year-old ex-footballer, who currently resides in Dubai according to his lawyer, was not present at the hearing.
In a video posted on social networks in March 2019 after Manchester United's victory against PSG in the Champions League, the former defender and captain of the Mancunian club launched in particular: "Paris, you are fags, you are fags... Here, it is the men who speak”.
Two complaints from associations
The Mousse and Stop Homophobia associations, supported by the anti-homophobia collective Rouge Direct, had filed a complaint for “public insult towards a group of people because of their sexual orientation”.
But the investigating judge had reclassified the facts as a "non-public insult" and referred the case to the police court: he considered that the ex-footballer had "expressed himself in a private setting for the realization of a video that was later posted on Snapchat without his knowledge.
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At the hearing, Patrice Évra's lawyer, Jérôme Boursican, felt that he had not "wanted to harm the homosexual community".
“What he is aiming for is PSG,” he assured, recalling that the ex-sportsman had published an apology video the day after it was broadcast.
If the words chosen are "unacceptable", "it's someone who was raised in the neighborhoods, who speaks like that", argued the lawyer.
Words that fuel "a deluge of homophobic hatred"
Admittedly, Patrice Évra was addressing "an adversary club", but he "knows the meaning of this insult, he knows that it refers to a sexual orientation and even if it was not clearly intended to hurt a group of people who recognize themselves in this sexual orientation”, he uses the term in a “stigmatizing and denigrating” way, replied the prosecutor of the police court.
“It is the responsibility of Patrice Évra, media personality, followed by many young people (…), to hold a citizen speech and respectful of all.
It is time for the rhetoric to change from this point of view,” she added.
The lawyer for the associations, Étienne Deshoulières, recalled that the video, still online, had been seen by nearly a million people.
"When he uses this insult, he is aware of lowering his addressee", he insisted, stressing that these remarks fueled "a deluge of hatred and homophobic violence" in particular in countries where homosexuality is repressed. criminally, particularly in Senegal, where Patrice Évra is from and where he has developed a humanitarian activity.
The decision will be made on February 9.