Éric Zemmour and the courts, the soap opera continues. The Court of Cassation on Tuesday canceled the acquittal of the politician and ordered a new trial for “disputing a crime against humanity”. In 2019, the former journalist argued that Marshal Pétain had “saved” French Jews during the Second World War.
“One day (…) you dared to say that Pétain had saved the French Jews. It’s a monstrosity, it’s revisionism,” Bernard Henri-Lévy was indignant. “It’s once again the real, I’m sorry,” replied Éric Zemmour, during a debate on CNews in 2019.
“The remarks complained of may constitute an offence”
In its reasons for release on May 12, 2022, the Paris Court of Appeal had considered that, if the remarks “may offend the families of deportees”, they “are not intended to contest or understate, even in a marginal way, the number of the victims of the deportation or the policy of extermination in the concentration camps”.
Tuesday, the Court of Cassation judges on the contrary that “the reproached remarks can constitute an offense even if they relate to a personality who has not been condemned for a crime against humanity”, according to a press release from the high court.
“It’s a real victory for law and memory. The thesis according to which Pétain would have saved Jews was not recognized by the Court of Cassation”, welcomed Me Patrice Spinosi, lawyer on the council of the Movement against racism and for friendship between peoples (Mrap).