The Court of Appeal of Aix-en-Provence has condemned this Wednesday Philippe Vardon, Regional Councilor (RN) of Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, to a fine of 750 euros for violence following a punch.
Philippe Vardon, regional councilor (RN) of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, has fined 750 euros for violence following a punch.
The court of appeal dismissed the classification of violence with threat or use of a weapon that had retained the Criminal Court of Draguignan to sentence the elected to six months in prison on October 3, 2016.
Not far from the town hall of Frejus, the night of the second round of the municipal elections of March 30, 2014, an altercation had opposed the elected frontist to three people who parked in their car and said that the elected had treated them as "dirty Arabic ".
A fight broke out in which Philippe Vardon was accused by his opponents of wearing a knife but the court did not retain this aggravating factor. "The transcript of the video surveillance camera records a brilliant object in the hand of Philippe Vardon during his face to face with the other defendants but we can not say that it is a knife or, as Philippe Vardon claims, of his car keys , " the judges write.
On the other hand, a witness of the scene claims to have seen him punch, which Philippe Vardon denied, explaining that he simply pushed back his opponent by putting his hand on his face after dodging a blow.
The Court of Appeal found that the use by the elected of a tear gas bomb against his three opponents who had, in a second phase of the altercation, equipped with a jack and a crank, constitutes an act of self-defense. The three men who had also been sentenced in first instance to six months' imprisonment for aggravated violence had their conviction reduced to a fine of 1,000 euros, "a penalty that was adapted to the relative seriousness of the facts and the personality of the perpetrators who certainly a criminal record but which now demonstrate social and professional integration " .