The far-right essayist was acquitted at first instance a year ago, but the Colmar Court of Appeal ruled that his gesture was a “public insult because of the origin, ethnicity, nation, race or religion “.
Le Monde avec AFP
He had been released at first instance , in January 2020. Alain Soral was finally sentenced on Wednesday January 6, 2021 by the Colmar Court of Appeal to 150 day fines for “public insult due to origin, ethnicity, nation, race or religion “after the broadcast on his Twitter account and his site Equality and reconciliation of a photo taken on May 5, 2019 showing him carrying out a” quenelle “in front of the court of Colmar.
The court of appeal has on the other hand confirmed the release for “provocation to hatred” pronounced at first instance, a fact for which Alain Bonnet, known as “Soral”, was also prosecuted.
He will have to pay “150 day-fines of a unit amount of 150 euros”, specifies the Court. In the event of total or partial default of payment, he will be imprisoned for a period corresponding to the number of unpaid fine days.
The “quenelle” (arm extended downwards and opposite hand resting on the shoulder ) was popularized by the controversial comedian Dieudonné, condemned several times for anti-Semitic statements, a gesture he described as “anti-system”.
An “anti-Semitic meaning”
However, it is “notorious” that this gesture is “sometimes a false nose of anti-Semitism”, notes the court, which recalled that Mr. Soral was condemned for having done it in the middle of the Memorial of the Shoah of Berlin . It notes that, “in the mind” of Mr. Soral, it therefore has an “anti-Semitic meaning”. Therefore, by broadcasting a photo of him making a “quenelle” in front of the courthouse in Colmar, Mr. Soral intended “to persist and sign in an anti-Semitic provocation”.
“We are satisfied” by this decision, reacted M e Rodolphe Cahn, the lawyer for the International League against Racism and anti-Semitism (Licra), civil party with the Israelite Consistory of Haut-Rhin and SOS-Racisme. “The act was intended to insult the Jewish community”, he added, questioned by Agence France-Presse, welcoming “a well-reasoned judgment”.
Alain Soral was sentenced about twenty times, most often for similar offenses. The Colmar Court of Appeal also recalled these multiple convictions, noting that the facts for which it condemned him on Wednesday constituted an “umpteenth public insult of a racist nature” testifying to “a will to persist in this way” .