Paris (AFP)
A man who had uttered death threats and anti-Semitic insults against television host Valérie Benaïm in September was sentenced Tuesday to two months in prison suspended by the court of Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine).
According to several witnesses Samir E., who suffers from a mental handicap, had insulted and threatened the columnist of the program "Touche pas à mon poste" in front of the studios of the C8 channel on September 22 in Boulogne-Billancourt, explaining in particular wanting in "fight with the Jews"
At the bar, the 33-year-old defendant admitted words "a little inappropriate" but denied what he had recognized during his custody: having gone there because of the comments made by the columnist on the rapper Freeze Corleone, several songs of which, accused of conveying anti-Semitic messages, are being investigated for "incitement to racial hatred".
The defendant explained that he "did not know" Ms. Benaïm and assured that it was a "misunderstanding", recalling that he was considered "as Cotorep" (Technical Commission for professional orientation and reclassification, structure aimed at help the reintegration of disabled people, editor's note) ", because of his" psychological problems ", which earned him" daily "medical follow-up and for which he was undergoing treatment.
Regarding the accusations of threats made online against the host, he assured not to have accounts on social networks and not to "know how to write".
According to prosecutor Estelle Colin, who had requested a four-month suspended prison sentence and denounced remarks that fall under "everyday anti-Semitism", Samir E., who was accused of "repeated threats of crime or misdemeanor against people because of his religion "," knew very well what he was doing ".
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