A 27-year-old man was to be tried this Wednesday for death threats against the principal of the Maurice Ravel high school, who had an altercation with a student at the end of February. The trial was adjourned until October 2.
The trial of a 27-year-old man who threatened to kill the principal of the Parisian high school Maurice-Ravel on the internet, after an altercation with a student to get her to remove her veil at the end of February, was once again adjourned on Wednesday, to October 2.
The young man is being prosecuted for having written on his X account, about the principal: “This is crazy. You have to burn him alive, this dog.” He appears “for public provocation without effect to commit a willful attack on life”.
This affair, which led to the civil servant’s early retirement, sparked a wave of indignation in France.
A second referral
Placed under judicial supervision, the defendant faces five years of imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros.
Initially, he was to be tried in immediate appearance on April 23, after a first postponement requested to prepare his defense. But the trial was referred to the 17th chamber of the Paris judicial court, which specializes in offenses relating to freedom of expression.
On Wednesday, the court decided once again to postpone the hearing, this time to October 2, due to the large number of cases that must be examined during the day, and in order for the case to be judged in a timely manner. terms.
On February 28, the principal of Maurice-Ravel had an altercation with an adult student, whom he asked to remove her veil within the establishment. He then received death threats online.
The student’s complaint dismissed
The defendant was arrested in mid-March. In court at the end of April, he said he “regretted” his comments and “apologized” to the victim. Unknown to the courts, the young man has a master’s degree and is looking for a job as a “project manager” in the “digital web”.
He had made his threats after his sister had told him what had happened at the school. But the version given by the high school student, who was not a direct witness to the events, was false, according to the principal’s lawyer, Francis Lec.
The headmaster “was caught in a vicious spiral following a lie on the part of a student”, an outburst which has similarities with that which led to the assassination of professor Samuel Paty, in October 2020 in Yvelines , estimated the lawyer.
In Paris, the student involved in the altercation filed a complaint against the principal for violence, but his complaint was dismissed for “insufficiently characterized offense”.
The principal, who after these incidents anticipated his retirement by a few months, filed a complaint for “act of intimidation against a person participating in the execution of a public service mission to obtain an exemption from the rules governing this service “.
In mid-March, another man also arrested as part of this investigation was tried immediately in Lisieux (Calvados). He was acquitted, but the prosecution appealed.
