TRIAL The director and a journalist of the newspaper were sentenced on appeal to a suspended fine of 1,000 euros
Daniele Obono. France Insoumise Nupes press conference, November 10, 2022 in Paris. — ISA HARSIN/SIPA
The judgment is final. The Director of Current Values (VA), Erik Monjalous, and a journalist from the weekly, Laurent Jullien, were sentenced Thursday on appeal to Paris to; a suspended fine of 1,000 euros for public insult to; racist character towards LFI deputy Danièle Obono. They are also condemned by the court of appeal to pay 5,000 euros in damages to elected as well as a symbolic euro for the associations having constituted civil parties with the deputy.
“By condemning the re ;daction of Current Valuesfor his infamous article “Obono l’African” which had shocked France as a whole last year, the Paris Court of Appeal put an end to the case. the dissemination of racist and xenophobic discourse held by the extreme right and the extreme right,” reacted Danièle Obono in a press release; received by AFP. “This new decision (…) is a validation and an encouragement to continue the fight against racism in all its forms and expressions,” she added. These penalties are nevertheless less than those pronounced in the first instance.
In August 2020, the magazine had published; a seven-page story titled; “Obono the African,” he told how the elected official of Paris born in Gabon, portrayed as a slave, experienced “responsibility; of Africans in the horrors of slavery” in the 18th century. The article, accompanied by of drawings representing the hon iron collar around the neck, had been condemned unanimously by the entire political class, President Emmanuel Macron in the lead.
A “ humiliation” for the MP
At the helm of the Court of Appeal, the elected official came to say that she’still felt some discomfort” since this case. “The references of the images, the justifications that are made around, I still feel the injustice that has been done to me. done and the humiliation it has been,” she said. The author of the article, Laurent Jullien, had explained to him that “the principle of this episode was to demonstrate what this slavery was like in reality”.
Civil party alongside; t”s of the deputy LFI, the League of Human Rights (LDH) is “rejoiced” of the new court decision, writing: “the alleged fiction does not allow to represent a deputy of the Republic, because black, as a slave, in an undignified situation. In his indictment, Advocate General Michel Lernoux recalled that “it”is essentially because of his origin” that Danièle Obono had been chosen. He had requested a fine of 10,000 euros against Laurent Jullien, Geoffroy Lejeune and Erik Monjalous.