France’s Court reject final appeals of far-right politician
The ruling upholds earlier judgments finding Zemmour guilty for incendiary comments targeting unaccompanied migrant minors and for defamatory remarks made against a lawyer in a separate case.
Zemmour — founder and president of the Reconquête party — was convicted of complicity in public insult and incitement to hatred over comments aired on CNews in 2020, during which he referred to unaccompanied migrant minors as “thieves,” “murderers” and “rapists.” According to Le Parisien, he was fined €10,000 ($11,637).
The court ruled that Zemmour’s statements “exceeded the permissible limits of freedom of expression due to their violence and sweeping nature,” noting that they could not be justified even in the context of contentious public debate on France’s immigration policy.
Under French press law, the then–editor-in-chief of CNews, Jean-Christophe Thiery de Bercegol du Moulin, was convicted as the principal offender and fined €3,000. The channel itself was previously hit with a €200,000 penalty by the former media regulator CSA — a sanction later confirmed by the Conseil d’État. The European Court of Human Rights dismissed CNews’ challenge to the fine in January 2025.
In a separate case, Zemmour was convicted of defamation over comments made on France 2 in April 2022, just days before the presidential election. He claimed that the father of Jeremie Cohen — a young Jewish man who died after being struck by a tram following an assault — had said that lawyer Patrick Klugman sought to “cover up the case.” Prosecutors later found no evidence of any religious motive in Cohen’s death.
Courts at both the initial and appellate levels found Zemmour guilty of defamation and imposed a €10,000 fine — now upheld as final.
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