Brigitte Bardot fined €20,000 for public insults
A French court has ordered actress Brigitte Bardot to pay a fine of 20,000 euros for public insults after she described the people of the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion in 2019 as "indigenous people who have preserved their savage genes".
Bruno Jaclan, the media attache of the 85-year-old former French actress, was also ordered to pay a fine of 4,000 euros for complicity in making the public accusations.
At the request of Pardo, he sent a letter containing the phrases that formed the subject of legal prosecution to several media outlets, including Agence France-Presse.
On October 7, during the trial, the public prosecutor asked for a fine of 25,000 euros for the former star who was involved in the defense of animal rights, and 5 thousand euros for her assistant.
In March 2019, Pardo sent an open letter to the local official of the island of La Reunion at the time, Amore de Saint-Cantan.
In the letter, Bardot wrote that she had "received a torrent of letters (...) denouncing the brutality of the La Réunion people against animals", describing them as "indigenous peoples who have preserved their savage genes".
The former actress also described La Reunion as "the island of the devil", saying that its inhabitants are "imbued with (...) rooted in savage traditions".
These statements sparked outrage on the island.
And the French Minister of Overseas Regions at the time, Annick Girardin, sent an open letter to Bardot, saying that "racism is not an opinion, but a crime."
Brigitte Bardot apologized to the residents of La Reunion, justifying her outrage at the "tragic fate" of the animals on the island.
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