Gilbert Collard and Wallerand de Saint-Just were convicted on Tuesday of defamation against the boss of Iliad and billionaire Xavier Niel, for having wrongly relayed that the boss of Free had been convicted of aggravated pimping. During the last presidential campaign, in March 2017, Gilbert Collard, then RN deputy of Gard, had affirmed on France Bleu that the main adversary of Marine Le Pen was "BFM-Macron", "all the press organs which are between the hands ”of big bosses, citing Xavier Niel as an example. And then launching, wrongly, that the latter had been convicted of aggravated pimping. The current RN MEP then published the extracts on his social networks and website. Wallerand de Saint-Just, RN regional councilor for Ile-de-France, had done the same on the site of the party of which he was the co-director.

The 17th chamber of the Paris Criminal Court ordered them to each pay 1,000 euros in damages to Xavier Niel.

Gilbert Collard is sentenced to a fine of 800 euros, Wallerand de Saint-Just to a suspended fine of 500 euros.

The court considered that the incriminated comments were false, defamatory and undermined the honor of Xavier Niel, and that Gilbert Collard had shown no weighting.

Lawyers not very legal

Me Jean-Marc Descoubès, lawyer Gilbert Collard, who will appeal, reacted: "The sentences are not very high, but we consider that the court should have accepted the excuse of good faith". He assured in defense of Gilbert Collard that "in his mind, Xavier Niel had been condemned". "It's a slap in the face for Mr. Niel given the weakness of the sentences," said Wallerand de Saint-Just for his part. The court noted that the two defendants, both lawyers, could not have confused in good faith “indictment” and “pre-trial detention” on the one hand, and “conviction” on the other.

In 2004, while he had invested in sex shops, Xavier Niel was suspected of "pimping" and "concealment of abuse of social goods".

Charged, he had spent a month in pre-trial detention.

Finally cleared of the head of "procuring", he was sentenced in 2006 to two years in prison and a fine of 250,000 euros for "concealment of abuse of social good".

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  • Wallerand de Saint-Just

  • Defamation

  • Gilbert collard

  • Xavier Niel

  • Justice