The two men had covered with white paint the face of a statue of Victor Hugo in Besançon, before affixing a sign with the mention “White Power” (“White power”) and a Celtic cross.
mo12345lemonde with AFP
They had been confused by surveillance cameras. Two students aged 20 and 22 were sentenced, Friday, February 17, to a hundred and forty hours of general interest by the Besançon court for the “racist” degradation of a statue of Victor Hugo. They risk three months’ imprisonment in the event of non-execution of this sentence.
The prosecution had requested twelve months in prison suspended probationary, work of general interest and a complementary sentence of ineligibility of five years against the two men, who incurred up to ten years in prison for “serious degradations, In a meeting, to the detriment of a public utility good, and at racist purpose “.
“It is a less severe penalty than the requisitions of the public prosecutor who demonstrates that the court managed to judge this case by moving away from the passions it has aroused to really stick to the facts, To the personalities of these two young people without a criminal record “, welcomed the lawyer for one of the two men, Marjorie Weiermann.
The statue being catering
At the end of November 2022, the two students in history, former members of the national rally, had covered with white paint the face of the statue before affixing a sign with the mention “White Power” (“White power”) and A Celtic cross. The statue, the work of the Senegalese artist Ousmane Sow, was being restored and a controversy had developed on the color, considered too dark by some, of the writer’s face, although the restoration was not finished.
“On the initiative of local nationalists, the statue of Victor Hugo (…) was restored and now has a beautiful white color, very French, well bisontine, well XIX e century”, Announced shortly after a claim message, posted on the website of the La Corre Student Association. The ecologist mayor of Besançon, Anne Vignot, said she was “extremely disappointed” by the court’s decision, insisting on the racist nature of the offense. “Expressing an ideology as serious as it is just unbearable,” she said.
The Maison des Potes, which had brought civil action, regretted sanctions below the requisitions for the two students. “The sentences pronounced are much lower than those claimed by the prosecution but it is to be hoped that the young supremacists retain the lesson of a public trial and a suspended prison sentence, said Samuel Thomas, one of the officials of the Anti -racist association. We hope that it will encourage them to get into the rank and to withdraw from far -right organizations. We are not sure that they have understood the message. “