Sentenced at first instance for defamation of a Nice academic involved in an association to help migrants, the mayor of Nice was released on appeal on Monday, we learned from a judicial source.
On April 23, 2021, Christian Estrosi was fined 3,000 euros by the Nice Criminal Court. He had accused Pierre-Alain Mannoni, a Nice academic who came to the aid of migrants, of “promoting the work of smugglers”.
“Some jihadists pretend to be migrants […] How can these individuals assure us that they are not bringing terrorists onto our soil by breaking the law as they do? “, he wrote on Twitter, denouncing a 2017 court decision which had released the teacher.
“Relax pure and simple”
Monday, the Court of Appeal of Aix-en-Provence “reversed the judgment of first instance and released” Christian Estrosi, indicated his lawyer Me Gérard Baudoux. The general prosecutor’s office of Aix-en-Provence confirmed this release.
In a message on Twitter, the mayor of Nice reacted by indicating that he had read “with satisfaction” the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which “reversed the judgment and pronounced my pure and simple release”.
The geographer had briefly hosted three Eritrean refugees in a disused French holiday center, before driving them by car to an SNCF station towards Marseilles where they were to be cared for by associations.