French Far-Right Figure Zemmour Acquitted on Appeal for Anti-Islam Speech

Mitigating circumstance for Eric Zemmour on appeal. The Paris Court of Appeal acquitted the columnist on Wednesday, who was being prosecuted for insult and incitement to hatred after a violent diatribe against Islam and immigration, reports AFP. On September 28, 2019, while participating in a "right-wing convention" organized by close associates of former National Rally (RN) MP Marion Maréchal, the journalist had delivered a speech in which he had criticized "colonizing" immigrants and the "Islamization of the street". He had also described the veil and the djellaba as "uniforms of an army of occupation". These remarks had cost him a conviction at first instance. He had been fined 10,000 euros.

In the eyes of the Paris Criminal Court, these remarks were "an exhortation, sometimes implicit, sometimes explicit, to discrimination and hatred towards the Muslim community and its religion". "Opinions, even shocking ones, must be able to be expressed. Nevertheless, the facts alleged go further and exceed the limits of freedom of expression since they are insulting remarks towards a community and its religion," had indicated the president of the 17th criminal chamber.

Also on the same day, Eric Zemmour was summoned to court to answer for his remarks on underage migrants. "They are thieves, they are murderers, they are rapists. That’s all they are. We have to send them back, wait, we don’t even have to let them come!" he had declared during a debate on the "Face à l’info" program, dedicated to the issue of unaccompanied minors, on September 29, 2020. The trial was postponed to November 17 at 9:30 a.m., Olivier Pardo, the journalist’s lawyer, told France Info.