They had made defamatory inscriptions on the tenure of a Renaissance MP in 2020. Three activists, claiming to be from the ultra-right movement, were sentenced Tuesday in Lyon (Rhône) to a fine of 4,000 euros, for “defamation towards a holder of public authority”.
The prosecution had requested fines of 6,000 to 8,000 euros against the three defendants, former members of Génération Identitaire aged 28 and 29.
“They made and disseminated unacceptable comments which convey messages marked with hatred,” said prosecutor Marie Brunet at the hearing, held in their absence on January 16.
The Lyon criminal court also awarded MP Thomas Rudigoz 5,000 euros in damages for acts committed during the campaign for the municipal and metropolitan elections of May 2020 and 3,000 euros in reimbursement of legal costs, accompanied by execution provisional judgment.
Offensive messages and photos from ISIS
The posters stuck on the electoral premises on May 5, 2020 accused the Macronist elected official of supporting Islamism, calling him a “candidate complicit in Islamization” and accusing him of having been “silent during the attacks”.
The messages were accompanied by photos of Islamic State fighters.
“Islamist Kamel Kabtane supported by Rudigoz”, could also be read on another poster, in reference to the support given by the deputy to the rector of the great mosque of Lyon, Kamel Kabtane.
In the midst of the Covid-19 health crisis, the rector was violently accused by far-right networks for having offered a prayer from the minaret of the great mosque to support patients and caregivers, alongside church bells. .
Read alsoHow Lyon became “a bastion to defend” for small far-right groups
After the MP's complaint, the judicial investigation made it possible to identify an activist from Génération Identitaire (movement dissolved in 2021) whose DNA was taken from a poster.
Tweets and a press release claiming the action, published on the Génération identitaire website, had made it possible to implicate two other activists from the far-right movement in Lyon, including Clément Gandelin, former president of Génération identitaire from 2019 to 2021.
Their defender Pierre-Vincent Lambert had striven throughout the debates to revive the controversies by denouncing “the ambiguities” of the rector of Lyon.
According to the lawyer, these elements would provide “a sufficient factual basis”, capable of justifying the term “Islamist” by the authors of the messages.
Me Lambert, who had requested the release of his three clients, announced his decision to appeal.