Racist remarks: 30,000 euros in fines requested against Bernard Casoni

The prosecution requested a 30,000 euro fine, including 20,000 with a suspended sentence, for remarks made during a press conference a year ago. He had declared: "They are no more stupid than Maghrebians".

This sentence was strongly condemned by the civil parties present at the trial. "It is a hierarchy, a stigmatization of an ethnicity," declared Bernard Schmid, the lawyer of the MRAP. "A racist cliché," added Guillaume Traynard, the defender of SOS Racisme. For Damien Gevaudan, lawyer of the Licra, "Bernard Casoni is looked at, listened to, strong in his record, in his authority". The prosecution also requested the posting of the judgment within the US Orléans club for two months and its publication in the press.

Bernard Casoni’s lawyer, Emmanuel Daoud, denounced "a trial as an example". He pleaded that his client "did not inferiorize the Maghrebians, he only referred to his previous experience and the last five seasons spent in the Maghreb before arriving in Orléans". The judgment was taken under advisement and will be rendered on January 9.