12 Jan. () –
The far-right French politician Éric Zemmour, the fourth most voted candidate in the last French presidential elections, has been sentenced this Thursday to pay a fine of 4,000 euros for racist insults against a former columnist for the Canal+ group.
The 64-year-old former presidential candidate and president of Reconquista has also been sentenced to pay 3,000 euros in damages, as well as 2,000 euros in legal fees, as reported by the TF1Info channel.
The French court in which the case has been deliberated has concluded that the comments made by the French far-right against the former columnist degenerated into “a strictly personal attack” and of a “discriminatory nature.”
The exchange between Zemmour and former columnist Hapsatou Sy occurred during a television show in September 2018 in which the French far-right rebuked her by name. “It is her first name that is an insult to France,” he snapped at the also television presenter.
Sy has affirmed this Thursday on his official Twitter account, through his lawyer, Antoine Vey, that “freedom of expression is not freedom of oppression.” Likewise, he has thanked her legal representative for her “unconditional support”.
“I am enormously proud to have stood firm during all these years and to have been able to have Éric Zemmour sentenced for insults of a racist nature. My name is my identity, my origins are my strength and, behind me, I hope that many other French people feel released,” he added.
It is not the first time that Zemmour has been fined, since in 2016 he made comments on television in which he questioned the integration of Muslims in France, equated Islam and terrorism and spoke of an Islamic “invasion”. His words earned him a fine of 3,000 euros for inciting discrimination and religious hatred.
In fact, the extreme rightist appealed the decision to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), which rejected his request, alleging that the French courts had not violated article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which enshrines freedom of expression.
