The conviction for contempt of a man who called Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin a “dirty rapist” during a ceremony honoring Father Hamel in 2020 was upheld on appeal on Thursday, the court announced. call from Rouen.

A first sentence in 2020

“The Court of Appeal confirmed the judgment of first instance in all its provisions”, declared the president of the correctional appeals chamber.

The defendant, fitter in the automotive industry and member of the CGT, was tried for "insult likely to undermine the dignity or respect due to the function" of the minister "in the exercise of his functions".

In December 2020, the criminal court had imposed on him at first instance a sentence of 100 day-fines at fifteen euros, or 1,500 euros.

If he does not pay this amount, he will have to serve one hundred days in prison.

"We are waiting to learn the terms of the judgment and the motivation but we are very seriously considering an appeal in cassation," said his lawyer Chloé Chalot.

No regrets for the accused

At the bar, the defendant admitted having launched "dirty rapist, Darmanin, dirty rapist", while the Minister of the Interior was in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen, to deliver a speech of homage to Father Hamel, murdered in 2016. "Even if I know that I did not use the right words, I do not regret having spoken because it is one of the only ways to be heard at the moment", had -he declares.

Darmanin has been the subject since 2017 of a rape complaint from a woman who had asked him to try to have a 2004 conviction for blackmail and malicious calls against an ex-companion overturned.

According to her, Darmanin would have dangled his support from the Chancellery via a letter, in exchange for sexual favors which she would have accepted.

For Darmanin, it was on the contrary a voluntary relationship.

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  • Gerald Darmanin

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  • Violence against women