Man Sentenced to 18 Months for Racist Slur Against Moroccan-Origin Officer in Nîmes

The sentence handed down by the Nîmes correctional court has been aggravated. Jean-Marc Arzalier was sentenced to 18 months, including eight suspended with probation with the obligation to compensate the victims and the obligation to receive care, reports Midi Libre. He must serve the 10 months of imprisonment in the form of an electronic bracelet. According to the court’s decision, the convicted person is deprived of civil, civil and family rights for three years.

Jean-Marc Arzalier made several racist remarks towards a gendarme of Moroccan origin. He had insulted her as a "bougnoule". That day, she was intervening at his home to settle a family dispute. In November 2020, the defendant had argued with his wife. He had just seen "a black person on television". A gendarmerie patrol had then intervened at this man’s home. In the past, he had already been convicted for his behavior towards the same gendarme. Other elements of the investigation: posts on social networks relaying anti-Semitic remarks and mocking the horror of the concentration camps.

The League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra) joined as a civil party. "Licra was a civil party alongside this gendarme who had been the victim, once again and by the same person four years apart and under almost identical conditions of intervention by the Saint-Gilles brigade, of insults and racist behavior. An opportunity to recall at the same time that our association is and will always be alongside the victims of racism, including when they belong to the security forces. Licra, it is worth remembering, fights racism, not the police and the gendarmerie," the organization said in a statement.

Prosecuted for these publications and for having insulted the military as a "bougnoule", the defendant appeared, last Tuesday, free before the chamber of correctional appeals but under electronic surveillance. He must serve six months under an electronic bracelet. The public prosecutor’s office requested the aggravation of the sentence handed down at first instance. This will be the case.