Eric Zemmour was prosecuted for "insult and incitement to hatred" after a violent diatribe against Islam and immigration pronounced in 2019 during a political rally in Paris.

However, the Paris Court of Appeal released the polemicist on Wednesday.

At first instance, the 63-year-old columnist was sentenced for these comments to a fine of 10,000 euros.

The reasons for the judgment of the court of appeal were not immediately available.

"An exhortation to discrimination and hatred"

During a "right-wing convention" organized by relatives of the former National Front MP Marion Maréchal on September 28, 2019, Eric Zemmour gave a speech lambasting "colonizing" immigrants and an "Islamization of the street" . The journalist also described the veil and the djellaba as "the uniforms of an occupying army".

At first instance, the Paris Criminal Court considered that these remarks constituted "an exhortation, sometimes implicit and sometimes explicit, to discrimination and hatred towards the Muslim community and its religion".

"Opinions, even shocking, must be able to be expressed, nevertheless the alleged facts go further and go beyond the limits of freedom of expression since they are abusive remarks towards a community and its religion", had then indicated the president of the 17th correctional chamber.

Trial for having qualified underage migrants as "thieves" and "murderers"

The words of Eric Zemmour had at the time been widely denounced in the political class and provoked a bitter debate in the media for which he worked.

Despite this controversy, the columnist was hired by CNews, where he has since appeared on a daily show.

His comments have earned him several lawsuits.

Eric Zemmour is also summoned to court on Wednesday for having implicated minor migrants, whom he described as “thieves” and “murderers” on CNews in September 2020. This trial could be postponed.

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