Eric Zemmour seizes the ECHR after his final conviction for provocation to religious hatred

Strasbourg (AFP)

The columnist and polemicist Eric Zemmour has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), reproaching France for violating its freedom of expression through its final conviction, for provocation to religious hatred, announced the Court Wednesday.

The ECHR, based in Strasbourg, has accepted the request of Eric Zemmour, on the basis of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights protecting freedom of expression, told the Court to AFP.

The court undertakes to process cases on average within three years after receiving the request.

In September, the Court of Cassation had rejected the appeal of Eric Zemmour against a judgment of the Paris Court of Appeal of May 2018 which sentenced him to a fine of 3,000 euros for anti-Muslim remarks held in 2016 in the issue of France 5 "C to you".

The author of the "Destin French" had notably considered that it was necessary to give to Muslims "the choice between Islam and France" and that France lived "for 30 years an invasion", affirming that "in innumerable suburbs French, where many girls are veiled "was playing a" struggle to Islamize a territory "," a jihad ".

The Court of Appeals held that both passages "are aimed at Muslims as a whole and contain an implicit exhortation to discrimination".

Eric Zemmour was also sentenced to pay a symbolic euro and 1,000 euros in legal costs to the association CAPJPO EuroPalestine, which had initiated the prosecution.

"The decision to condemn Zemmour violates freedom of expression and constitutes a breach of fair trial," said his lawyer, Antoine Beauquier, to the weekly Le Point. "Our appeal raises the question: does France still allow someone the right to be a polemicist?"

This appeal may seem paradoxical while Eric Zemmour lambasted in the past "those judges who trampled on democracy", targeting among others the ECHR.

"In the name of the rule of law, the judges, whom the media calls the sages, ie the European Court of Human Rights, the European Court of Justice and the Constitutional Council, impose their ideology to political power, "he pointed out in October 2018 in an interview at Point.

© 2019 AFP