Far-Right French Politician Zemmour Faces Retrial for Anti-Islam Comments

The former French presidential candidate’s new trial will take place before the Paris Court of Appeal. He will be retried for public insults and incitement to racial hatred. Facing new legal troubles does not worry him, according to the words of his lawyer Me Olivier Pardo.

During a "right-wing convention" organized on September 28, 2019, Éric Zemmour had mentioned an "Islamization of the street" when talking about immigrants. The commentator had also described the veil and the djellaba as "the uniforms of an army of occupation". These remarks were denounced by the political class and sparked some controversies in the media, especially Cnews, Zemmour’s employer at the time.

To read:

In his first trial, the Paris Criminal Court had ruled that Éric Zemmour’s remarks constituted "an exhortation, sometimes implicit, sometimes explicit, to discrimination and hatred towards the Muslim community and its religion" and had sentenced him to pay a fine of 10,000 euros.