The trial of Franco Lollia, already twice sent back, was held this Monday, the day of the commemoration of the abolition of slavery.
A highly symbolic date.
The activist explains that he sought to denounce, by his gesture, “state negrophobia”.
The prosecution requested a fine of 800 euros against him
At the criminal court in Paris,
On paper, it was a simple file of degradation, a tag on a statue located in front of the gates of the National Assembly. But the case which occupied this Monday for nearly eight hours the 28th chamber of the Paris Criminal Court was eminently political, historical, even philosophical. Because it was neither a simple tag, nor a simple statue. On June 23, Franco Lollia painted and inscribed “state negrophobia” on the statue of Colbert, Minister of Louis XIV, considered to be the initiator of the “Black Code” which legalized slavery in the French colonies. A text in which black people are qualified as "movable property".
Sign of the echo encountered by this affair, the trial, which luckily wanted to be held symbolically on the day of the commemoration of the abolition of slavery, was heard in one of the largest rooms of the palace of justice to welcome a large audience.
Franco Lollia, glasses with large silver frames and black sweatshirt with sequins bearing the image of the association "anti-negrophobia brigade" of which he is the spokesperson, does not deny his gesture.
On the other hand, he disputes the analysis made by justice.
It is not about a "matter of coloring or scribbling", at no time, he assures, he had the will to degrade the statue.
“It's more of a contribution, even an improvement.
"
"Double discourse of the State"
By his action, he wanted to "challenge the State", question the presence of a "black criminal" before the National Assembly. It is “the apology for a crime against humanity in front of the people's house”, he laments, the illustration that “the French state is still viscerally negrophobic”. The activist claims to have opted for the hard way as a last resort, tired of seeing all his previous actions go unheeded. His letters went unanswered, his legal proceedings against a champagne which named one of its cuvées "Code noir" were dismissed. "At one point, we do not know what to do, we find ourselves in front of a statue that insults us like a dirty nigger," he insists at the bar of the criminal court.
His four lawyers, three of whom were traveling from Guadeloupe or Martinique, demanded his release. "The intention was not to degrade, insists Me Guy Florentin, but to highlight the double discourse of the State", which now recognizes slavery as a crime against humanity but keeps it in the public space representations of characters who contributed to it. And his colleague, Georges-Emmanuel Germany, to insist: "This trial is part of the negationism inherent in the crime against humanity". If all four regretted that this file is treated only as a simple affair of degradation, thus preventing their client from going into more detail on the basis of what he puts forward, they believe that this trial marks a turning point. "History is on the move and you must have the courage to see it",estimated Me Emmanuelle Bruch.
800 euros fine required
The civil party as the public prosecutor, on the contrary, refused to place themselves on this symbolic ground.
"It is not a question of saying whether the historical fact which is described is true or false", insists in its plea the council of the National Assembly, Me Ali Derrouiche.
The prosecutor abounds.
This file is, neither more nor less, that of a "material degradation".
"The accused disputes neither the will nor the intention", insists the magistrate who requested an 800 euros fine against Franco Lollia.
The judgment was reserved on June 28.
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Justice
Paris: Franco Lollia, "anti-negrophobia" activist, tried for having tagged the statue of Colbert
Slavery
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Justice