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Zemmour’s hate speech convictions become final by French court
(MENAFN) French far-right figure Eric Zemmour’s convictions for hate speech and defamation were finalized on Tuesday after the Court of Cassation rejected his latest appeals, according to reports.
The ruling confirmed previous decisions finding him guilty for remarks targeting unaccompanied migrant minors and statements made against a lawyer in a separate matter.
The court determined that Zemmour, founder and president of the Reconquete party, was “rightly” convicted of complicity in public insult and incitement to hatred over comments he made on the CNews channel in 2020, when he described unaccompanied migrant minors as “thieves,” “murderers” and “rapists.”
He was ordered to pay €10,000 ($11,637) in fines. The court noted that the remarks “exceeded the permissible limits of freedom of expression due to their violence and generality,” adding that they could not be justified even within debates on France’s immigration policies.
Under French press law, CNews’s editor-in-chief at the time, Jean-Christophe Thiery de Bercegol du Moulin, was also convicted of the main offenses and fined €3,000 ($3,490). CNews itself had previously been fined €200,000 ($232,600) by the former audiovisual regulator CSA (now Arcom), a penalty later upheld by the Conseil d’Etat. A challenge from the broadcaster was dismissed by the European Court of Human Rights in January 2025.
In a separate case from April 2022, days before the presidential election, Zemmour told France 2 that the father of Jeremie Cohen, a young Jewish man who died after being struck by a tram following an assault, claimed that “his lawyer Patrick Klugman wanted absolutely to cover up the case.” Prosecutors later found no evidence of any “religious motive” in Cohen’s death. Zemmour was convicted of defamation in both initial and appeal courts, receiving a €10,000 (($11,637) fine, which is now final.
Zemmour, known for his hardline anti-immigration stance and repeated clashes with media regulators and the courts, faces an expanding list of legal challenges as he seeks to maintain prominence ahead of France’s 2027 presidential race.
The ruling confirmed previous decisions finding him guilty for remarks targeting unaccompanied migrant minors and statements made against a lawyer in a separate matter.
The court determined that Zemmour, founder and president of the Reconquete party, was “rightly” convicted of complicity in public insult and incitement to hatred over comments he made on the CNews channel in 2020, when he described unaccompanied migrant minors as “thieves,” “murderers” and “rapists.”
He was ordered to pay €10,000 ($11,637) in fines. The court noted that the remarks “exceeded the permissible limits of freedom of expression due to their violence and generality,” adding that they could not be justified even within debates on France’s immigration policies.
Under French press law, CNews’s editor-in-chief at the time, Jean-Christophe Thiery de Bercegol du Moulin, was also convicted of the main offenses and fined €3,000 ($3,490). CNews itself had previously been fined €200,000 ($232,600) by the former audiovisual regulator CSA (now Arcom), a penalty later upheld by the Conseil d’Etat. A challenge from the broadcaster was dismissed by the European Court of Human Rights in January 2025.
In a separate case from April 2022, days before the presidential election, Zemmour told France 2 that the father of Jeremie Cohen, a young Jewish man who died after being struck by a tram following an assault, claimed that “his lawyer Patrick Klugman wanted absolutely to cover up the case.” Prosecutors later found no evidence of any “religious motive” in Cohen’s death. Zemmour was convicted of defamation in both initial and appeal courts, receiving a €10,000 (($11,637) fine, which is now final.
Zemmour, known for his hardline anti-immigration stance and repeated clashes with media regulators and the courts, faces an expanding list of legal challenges as he seeks to maintain prominence ahead of France’s 2027 presidential race.
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