The administrative court of Toulouse rejected the appeals filed against the Occitanie region. On October 21, 2020, the Region had projected on the facades of the two regional hotels, in Montpellier and Toulouse, a photo of Samuel Paty as well as six caricatures of the designers of Charlie Hebdo. This decision was taken five days after the assassination of the history-geography teacher by a religious fanatic, for having shown cartoons from the newspaper during a class. Charlie Hebdo to his students.
The community was being sued by the Association for Coordination against Racism and Islamophobia (CRI) and a lawyer at the bar in Kuwait. They demanded a conviction for compensation for moral damage suffered.
The administrative court ruled that “the dissemination of these cartoons does not infringe freedom of conscience and freedom of worship”. For the judges, “the dissemination of these cartoons does not involve any stigmatization of an ideological or religious conviction, but aimed to affirm the principles of secularism, freedom of expression and freedom of conscience. It infringed neither the principle of neutrality or secularism of public services, nor the principle of equality of citizens before the law. »
“In the face of extremes, I will never compromise”
“In the face of extremes, whether political or religious, I will never compromise. Even more, I will continue to assert with force what founds our common, our Republic, and one of its fundamental principles, secularism, reacted Carole Delga (PS), the president of the region. We have a duty to tirelessly pursue the mission of awakening the conscience and the critical spirit of new generations. It is the most beautiful tribute that we can continue to pay to Professor Samuel Paty ”.