The polemicist challenged his condemnation of 2019 for “provocation to discrimination, hatred or violence against Muslims”.
Mo12345lemonde with AFP
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) dismissed, Tuesday, December 20, the far -right polemicist Eric Zemmour. She thus validates her condemnation by French justice for “provocation to discrimination, to hatred” towards the Muslim community, after remarks made on France 5 in 2016.
“The Court considers that the interference in the exercise by the applicant of his right to freedom of expression was necessary in a democratic society in order to protect the rights of others”, explains the ECDH . The latter considers that the decision of French justice, while effectively constituting an attack on the freedom of expression of the candidate for the last presidential election, was legitimate and does not have to be called into question.
During the program “C à vous” broadcast on September 6, 2016 on France 5, Eric Zemmour said that Muslims had to be given the choice between Islam and France “. According to him, France has been living “an invasion” for thirty years “. He also said that “in countless French suburbs where many young girls are veiled” would play a “struggle to Islamize a territory”, “a jihad”.
several times condemned
He had been sentenced at first instance by the Paris Criminal Court to 5,000 euros fine for “provocation to discrimination, hatred or violence against a group of people due to their origin or their belonging to a religion “. The penalty had been reduced to 3,000 euros on appeal in May 2018. The Court of Cassation then rejected its appeal in September 2019.
The ECHR, the judicial arm of the Council of Europe, “considers that these remarks were not limited to a criticism of Islam but included, given the context of terrorist attacks in which they were registered, a Discriminatory intention likely to call listeners to the rejection and exclusion of the Muslim community “.
“Given the state’s assessment of the State in this case, and the condemnation of the applicant to the payment of a fine of an amount of 3,000 euros which is not excessive, the court is convinced that the disputed interference [in the right to freedom of expression of Eric Zemmour] was proportionate to the goal pursued, “also estimated the ECHR.
The recourse of Eric Zemmour in front of the ECHR could seem paradoxical when the polemicist castigated in the past “these judges who crowd democracy”, targeting, among others, the ECHR. “In the name of the rule of law, the judges, which the media call the wise men, that is to say the European Court of Human Rights, the European Court of Justice and the Constitutional Council, impose their ideology in political power “, he pointed out in October 2018 in an interview with point .
Eric Zemmour has already been sentenced several times by justice. On February 18, 2011 for “provocation to racial discrimination”, after having declared that “most of the traffickers are black and Arab, that’s how it”, on the set of Thierry Ardisson, on Canal+, in March 2010. On the 17th January 2022 for “provocation to hatred and violence” and “public insults towards a group of people because of their origin” after its words in November 2020 on isolated minors “thieves”, “rapists” and “assassins”.
He was again condemned on March 4, 2022, but this time for “copyright counterfeiting”, after the broadcast of his application clip, November 30, 2021, where he had used a number of extracts films without any kind of authorization.