French-Moroccan MP Files Complaint Over Racist Comments on TV Channel LCI

Outraged by these "shocking and malicious" remarks, the deputy of the 9th constituency of French citizens living abroad, M’jid El Guerrab, has seized, through his counsel, Maîtres Michaël Bendavid and Margaux Durand-Poincloux, the public prosecutor on the basis of Article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, "in order to see the authors of these shocking remarks prosecuted," reports the MAP.

In a press release sent to the Moroccan press agency, the deputy denounces these racist remarks. These are "an invitation, even an exhortation, to differential treatment based on origin". In his view, such a message is not only morally intolerable; it constitutes a "criminal offense punishable by law," he adds.

For the French deputy, the remarks made on LCI "are both insulting and discriminatory, and constitute two racial offenses provided for by the law of July 29, 1881 on the freedom of the press". The first offense is that of public insult against persons on the grounds of their origin, in this case the African population. "The remarks in question do indeed contain ’terms of contempt’ (Article 29 of the law) towards this population," he believes.

As for the second offense, it amounts to "incitement to discrimination against the same group of persons (Article 23 of the law), since the remarks invite the determination of the persons tested according to a primary criterion, namely geographical origin," argues M’Jid El Guerrab.