INFO EUROPE 1 – 2024 legislative elections: Raphaël Arnault has (already) been convicted of group violence

According to information from Europe 1, the antifa activist was sentenced on February 18, 2022 by the Lyon Criminal Court to four months of suspended imprisonment for group violence.

“Get the convictions out of me!” Raphaël Arnault – whose real name is Archenault – defended himself on June 18 at a press conference. File “S” for his membership in the antifa movement, also registered in the file for the prevention of attacks on public security (FASP), the spokesperson for the “Young Guard” and NFP candidate in Vaucluse, threatens legal action the press which would evoke these “so-called suspicions” of violence.

Suspicions, really? According to information from Europe 1, the antifa activist was sentenced on February 18, 2022 by the Lyon Criminal Court to four months of suspended imprisonment for group violence. The facts date back to April 24, 2021. The victim, Geoffrey L., was approached on a street in Lyon by six individuals. They surrounded him and pinned him against a wall before taking off his coat and asking him to unlock his cell phone. They were trying to find out if he belonged to a far-right group.

Geoffrey L. refuses and is immediately assaulted. Injured in the elbow, he will benefit from one day of ITT. The six attackers flee. Among them, Raphaël Arnault, formally identified by the victim.

Sentenced in February 2022

When arrested, Raphaël Arnault denied the facts. But the video surveillance of the city of Lyon confirmed the victim’s statements. Above all, the police discovered photos published on the internet where the antifa was dressed in the same way the day before the events in the same neighborhood where the attack took place. Furthermore, the police investigation established thanks to the geolocation data of his mobile phone that he was indeed nearby.

On February 18, 2022, the 13th Criminal Chamber of the Lyon Court found him guilty of intentional violence in a group that did not result in incapacity for work for more than eight days. He was sentenced to four months in prison, suspended. But this sentence is not final. Because five days later, Raphaël Arnault appealed. According to information from Europe 1, the case is now in the hands of the 9th Criminal Appeals Chamber of the Lyon Court of Appeal but has not yet been heard, as no date has been set to date. Raphaël Arnault therefore remains presumed innocent.