The author of the slap in the face of the President of the Republic was sentenced Thursday by the Criminal Court of Valence to 18 months in prison, 14 of which were suspended.
Tuesday, in Tain-l'Hermitage, in the Drôme, Damien Tarel had taken advantage of a rally around Emmanuel Macron, then on the move, to attack him.
The Valence Criminal Court on Thursday sentenced Damien Tarel to 18 months in prison, including 14 months suspended sentence, with a committal warrant, for having slapped President Emmanuel Macron two days earlier during a trip to the Drôme.
The public prosecutor of Valencia had requested 18 months in prison for willful violence against a person holding public authority.
The 28-year-old man, who admitted to having given the head of state this slap during the hearing, was immediately jailed.
Until then unknown to the justice services, Damien Tarel was also sentenced to an obligation of work or training and a ban on carrying weapons for five years.
Damien Tarel asked to be tried "immediately"
This slap, "perfectly inadmissible" is an "act of deliberate violence", supported the public prosecutor Alex Perrin in front of the defendant, long hair, green t-shirt and glasses on the nose, who was judged in immediate appearance . The latter could request a postponement of the trial to better prepare his defense but asked to be tried "immediately". Alex Perrin was worried about a possible risk of recurrence, saying he perceived "a kind of cold determination" in this resident of the small town of Saint-Vallier.
Damien Tarel admitted during the hearing to have hit the president, with an "impulsive" gesture. "I do not appreciate him and when he went directly to me, at first, it surprised me", said the one who said to himself "invested by the 'yellow vests' whose voice does not 'is heard more ". Before explaining it. "It's his campaign: he's trying to target French youth." "When I saw his sympathetic and lying gaze," I understood, he said, that he "wanted to make me a potential voter." The president of the court was surprised by this gesture, while the respondent said he was fond of martial arts. "How does your reaction on Tuesday conform to these principles, to chivalry,mastery of martial arts? "
"It's been 48 hours that the entourage lives a hell"
"If we stay in reality, I just slapped Emmanuel Macron because a feeling of injustice ran through me. It has nothing to do with chivalry or my personal activities," he replied. Damien Tarel recognized his anchoring to the right of the political spectrum, assuring that his cry "Montjoie Saint-Denis" pronounced before his slap "refers to the historic rallying cry of the French knights. It is also a patriotic slogan", a- he said in court in Valence. Unemployed and living on the RSA, the respondent recognized academic difficulties due to his dyslexia, a baccalaureate passed twice, embalming training interrupted before the national diploma. Since the death of his father, two years ago, he has not worked again.
To revive "his dying little country town", he set up three associations: a medieval martial arts club, a games association and a manga festival.
And read a lot about the Middle Ages.
In her plea, her lawyer Elodie Guellier was moved by the role of the press - "it's been 48 hours that the entourage lives a hell" - and asked the court to "put the facts into perspective".
"His objective was to exchange with the president", she added, acknowledging a "particularly unsuitable gesture" coming from a "lambda" man "who has never hit anyone".
"I think he realized the gravity of the facts."
Emmanuel Macron minimizes the episode again
Calling on the court that there should be no "exceptional justice" or "example justice", she suggested, in vain, community service, because incarceration "does not will bring it to nothing ". "This decision will be observed, scrutinized" and will even have "an international media response", predicted Alex Perrin, in reference to the many journalists gathered in court. The slap inflicted on Emmanuel Macron at Tain l'Hermitage had aroused the indignation of the entire political class even if the President of the Republic relativized the gesture, denouncing "isolated facts" committed by "ultraviolent individuals".
Emmanuel Macron again downplayed this episode Thursday, believing that the country is not in a situation of tension as during the crisis of "yellow vests" and preferring to insist on the atmosphere of "optimism" that he feels in France . "You have to put things into perspective and not trivialize anything" but "it does not matter to receive a slap when you go to a crowd," he added in an interview with the BFMTV channel.