The author of death threats targeting the principal of the Parisian high school Maurice Ravel, after an altercation between the latter and an adult student whom he asked to remove her veil, was sentenced, Monday, November 18, by the Paris Criminal Court to a sentence of 60 days, fine of 10 euros each.
These 60 day fines, totaling 600 euros, can be worth days in prison if the convicted person fails to pay them. The court also sentenced him to complete a five-day citizenship course and to pay 3,000 euros in damages to Philippe Le Guillou, principal at the time of the events. After these incidents, Mr. Le Guillou had anticipated his retirement by a few months.
It is about “a stunning judgment which trivializes hate speech against heads of establishments threatened with death in the exercise of their functions”reacted in a press release Francis Lec, his lawyer, who hopes that the prosecution will appeal. Asked after leaving the courtroom about his state of mind in the middle of the trial of eight people implicated in the assassination of Samuel Paty, the former principal admitted to being shaken: “Each trial brings everything back to the table, it’s not easy”.
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“I ask for forgiveness”
The Ravel high school affair dates back to February 28. The principal had an altercation with an adult student whom he asked to remove her veil within the school grounds. The next day, several death threats were published online, including that of AA, the 27-year-old young man tried in Paris, who wrote on his X account: “It’s crazy. You have to burn him alive, this dog”.
The complaint for violence filed by the student involved in the altercation was dismissed at the end of March for “insufficiently characterized offense”. “I deeply regret and ask for forgiveness”AA told the court during his trial in October.
During the hearing, the assassinations of Samuel Paty in 2020 and Dominique Bernard in 2023 were mentioned numerous times, as was the difficulty of enforcing secularism in educational establishments. “Sometimes it’s difficult and sometimes people are afraid”recalled Philippe Le Guillou.
In mid-March, another man arrested as part of this investigation was released in Lisieux (Calvados), but the prosecution appealed. In November, the public prosecutor requested a ten-month suspended prison sentence for a third man tried in Bourg-en-Bresse (Ain). The decision will be made on November 28.
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