Brigitte Bardot, who in 2019 qualified the Reunionese as "natives who have kept their wild genes", was sentenced Thursday by the Saint-Denis court to 20,000 euros for racial insults.
Prosecuted for complicity in public insults, Bruno Jacquelin, the press secretary of the former 85-year-old actress, was fined 4,000 euros.
At the request of his employer, he forwarded the disputed letter to several media, including AFP.
On October 7, during the trial, the prosecution requested a 25,000 euros fine against the former star who defends the animal cause and 5,000 euros against his collaborator
Creator of a foundation bearing her name and working for the protection of animals, the former actress sent an open letter in March 2019 to Amaury de Saint-Quentin, then prefect of Reunion.
Claiming to be "invaded by letters (...) denouncing the barbarity that the Reunionese exert on animals", Brigitte Bardot said that "the natives have kept their genes of savages".
She had also compared Reunion Island to "the Devil's Island" with "a degenerate population still imbued with (...) the barbarian traditions which are their roots".
Great indignation
These invectives had caused great indignation in the island.
Annick Girardin, at the time Minister of Overseas Territories, had sent an open letter to the former actress.
"Racism is not an opinion, it is a crime" recalled the minister.
The deputy Jean-Hugues Ratenon (LFI) the Licra, the Mrap and SOS Racisme, the human rights league and Hindu religious associations and groups then lodged a complaint against the former actress.
Brigitte Bardot had apologized to the Reunionese by justifying her anger by what she considers to be the "tragic fate" of the animals on the island.
“It's stupidity (...).
She speaks of reminiscences of cannibalism, there they are reminiscences of colonialist thought ”exclaimed at the hearing Master Axel Vardin, lawyers of Jean-Hugues Ratenon and Hindu associations.
The words of Madame Bardot are insulting, offensive "had estimated the prosecutor Bérengère Prudhomme The defense of animals," it is the life of Brigitte Bardot ".
Animal distress "is a reality in Reunion," said his lawyer, Maître Catherine Moissonier, at the hearing.
She had qualified the Brigitte Bardot Foundation as a "whistleblower" vis-à-vis animal distress.