Eric Zemmour relaxed on appeal after polemical remarks about Muslims

The Paris Court of Appeal on Thursday released polemicist Eric Zemmour, sentenced in 2015 for provoking hatred against Muslims after remarks in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

The court of appeal has relaxed the polemicist, "the proof not being reported of what he knew that his remarks would be broadcast in France and on the website of Corriere della Sera".

In October 2014, Eric Zemmour had in particular told the Italian newspaper that Muslims "have their civil code, it's the Koran", that "they live between them, in the suburbs.The French were forced to leave ".

At first instance, in December 2015, the court sentenced the polemist to a fine of € 3,000 and to pay damages to several anti-racism badociations.

This judgment was upheld on appeal in November 2016, but the Court of Cbadation later quashed the appeal decision and ordered a third trial, finding that the court of appeal had not sufficiently substantiated its decision.

At the end of the second trial on appeal, the judges said Thursday that "there is no evidence that Eric Zemmour, pursued as an interviewee, knew that this newspaper was published in France," said the president of the court. "Nothing on the record proves he knew."

After the controversy that followed these words, the iTELE channel decided at the end of 2014 to end the show "Ca argues" which Eric Zemmour participated for ten years.

In May 2018, Eric Zemmour was sentenced on appeal for provoking hatred for other statements deemed Islamophobic. He was also convicted of provoking racial discrimination in 2011, after saying on television that "most traffickers are black and Arab, that's how it is a fact".