Prosecuted for racial insult, incitement to hatred or contestation of a crime against humanity, the ex-journalist came out more often released than condemned.

Here are the main decisions concerning him:

"Black and Arab" offenders

It was in 2011 that Eric Zemmour, then columnist for Le Figaro and on RTL, made his first noticeable appearance in a courtroom.

A year earlier, in March 2010, he sparked an uproar by declaring in Thierry Ardisson's program "Salut les terrens", that "most traffickers are black and Arab, that's how it is, it's a made".

Anti-racist associations lodge a complaint, the debate rages on.

In the name of the "defense of freedom of opinion" or the fight against "political correctness", the journalist is supported by right-wing deputies, a famous magistrate, Philippe Bilger, and the former socialist minister Jean-Pierre Chevènement.

In February 2011, the Paris Criminal Court found him guilty of inciting racial hatred, fined him 1,000 euros but released him from the defamation proceedings.

Eric Zemmour does not appeal, his sentence is final.

"Invaders"

In June 2016, the Paris Court of Appeal acquitted the columnist for incitement to racial hatred and defamation.

In question, a chronicle of 2014 on RTL where he denounces "the bands of Chechens, Roma, Kosovars, Maghrebians, Africans who rob, violate or rob."

The criminal court had already acquitted him in September 2015 on the grounds that the affected communities were not as a whole.

The Italian interview

In October 2014, he told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera that Muslims "live among themselves, in the suburbs. The French have been forced to leave".

A year later, the criminal court sentenced him to a fine of 3,000 euros, a sentence confirmed on appeal in November 2016.

But the Court of Cassation ordered for a formal reason a third trial before the Court of Appeal which, in November 2018, acquitted him because "it is not proven that Eric Zemmour (...) knew that this newspaper was published in France ".

This outing cost him his place in the program "Ça se dispute" on the iTELE channel (now CNews).

"Invasion"

France has been living "for thirty years an invasion", it is the scene of a "jihad" which aims to "Islamize" it, he professes in 2016 on France 5.

In June 2017, the court fined him 5,000 euros for remarks "stigmatizing (...) in particularly violent and peremptory terms" Muslims.

The Court of Appeal confirmed in May 2018 his guilt for provoking religious hatred but reduced his fine to 3,000 euros.

His cassation appeal is dismissed, the penalty is final.

However, in 2019 he seized the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which has not yet examined his request.

Pétain and the Jews

In December 2020, Eric Zemmour appears for "contesting a crime against humanity".

Facing the philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, he said in 2019 on CNews that Marshal Pétain had "saved" French Jews.

In February 2021, the court acquitted him because his words were pronounced "point blank during a debate on the war in Syria".

The civil parties appealed.

Colonizers"

On September 8, 2021, the Paris Court of Appeal released Eric Zemmour for having castigated "colonizing" immigrants during a meeting organized in 2019 by relatives of the former National Front MP (now RN) Marion Maréchal.

Eric Zemmour AFP

At first instance, he was sentenced to a 10,000 euros fine for "exhortation, sometimes implicit sometimes explicit, to discrimination and hatred towards the Muslim community and its religion".

Conversely, the appellate judges believe that "none of the statements prosecuted target all Africans, immigrants or Muslims but only fractions of these groups".

The general prosecutor's office and the civil parties appealed to the Supreme Court.

Minors "thieves, murderers, rapists"

Eric Zemmour was still prosecuted on November 17, this time for a projection on unaccompanied minor migrants.

"They have nothing to do here, they are thieves, they are murderers, they are rapists, that's all they are, they must be sent back and they must not even come", a- he launched on Cnews in September 2020.

"Contemptuous, outrageous remarks", estimated the prosecution, which requested a fine of 10,000 euros.

"There is not an ounce of racism" at home, pleaded his lawyer, Me Olivier Pardo, he does nothing but say "reality".

The court's decision is expected on January 17.

© 2021 AFP