• Christian Estrosi was fined 3,000 euros for defamation against an academic from Nice who came to the aid of migrants and whom he had compared to a smuggler.

  • "He made me pass for a scoundrel passing off terrorists and a human trafficker," Pierre-Alain Mannoni denounced.

He has already announced that he will appeal this judgment.

The LR mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi was sentenced this Friday to a 3,000 euros fine for defamation against a Nice academic who came to the aid of migrants and whom he had compared to a smuggler.

On Twitter, the right-wing politician had criticized a court decision relaxing Pierre-Alain Mannoni in 2017 and for the latter's lawyer, Me Maeva Binimelis, these “unjustifiable” remarks had “nailed to the pillory” his client.

Naming the academic, but also Cédric Herrou, the activist of the Roya valley, Christian Estrosi wrote: “They are all guilty of bringing people illegally into our territory.

With these actions they promote the work of smugglers.

[…] Some jihadists pass themselves off as migrants.

[…] How can these individuals assure us that they are not bringing terrorists back to our soil?

"

"I have received death threats"

"He made me pass for a scoundrel passing off terrorists and a trafficker in human beings," recalled the researcher who accuses Christian Estrosi of not having withdrawn the disputed message nor measured the scope of his statements.

"It's serious and since then I have received death threats," he said.

"I consider that the declarations of Christian Estrosi were part of a public debate on immigration and the potential dangers of the aid given to illegal immigration", considered on the contrary the lawyer of the mayor Me Gérard Baudoux, indicating that he immediately appealed.

The principle of fraternity recognized since 2018

Pierre-Alain Mannoni had briefly accommodated three Eritrean refugees before driving them by car to an SNCF station towards Marseille where they were to be treated by associations.

Caught in a legal turmoil that lasted four years until his final release on October 28, 2020.

Seized by Cédric Herrou and his lawyers, the Constitutional Council recognized the principle of fraternity in 2018 and rewrote the law to specify that, while assistance with entry into the territory is still a crime, assistance with movement and the stay is not punishable if it is carried out for humanitarian purposes and without compensation.

Migrants

The activist of the Roya valley Cédric Herrou definitively relaxed

Justice

Tried on appeal for having transported migrant women, an academic says he is ready "to do it again"

  • Defamation

  • Immigration

  • Christian Estrosi

  • Migrants

  • Justice

  • Nice