The Lyon prosecutor’s office on Tuesday demanded a fine of 10,000 euros against the far-right activist affiliated with Reconquête Damien Lefevre, known under the pseudonym of Damien Rieu, for defamation of footballer Karim Benzema, presented in a tweet next to Islamist fighters . Judgment was reserved for September 19.
“I believe that Benzema wants to send us a message”, had indicated in this tweet of November 22, 2020 the polemicist, co-founder of the disbanded group Identity Generation.
“The amalgam is not only defamatory but it is despicable and grotesque”, estimated the prosecutor Alain Grellet, claiming a fine of an unusual amount in terms of the press. According to the magistrate, this way of insinuating a closeness between the famous player from Bron, in the Lyon suburbs, and jihadists “constitutes an insult to those who fight against Islamist terrorism, and to those who have suffered from it. in their flesh.
In the context of the assassination of Samuel Paty
“We have the right to make fun of Karim Benzema, pleaded Sylvain Cormier, the footballer’s lawyer. But to associate him with a terrorist, that, we have no right. According to Me Cormier, two successive tweets posted by Damien Lefevre on his account on behalf of Rieu have “exceeded the limits of the acceptable”, produced in the context of the assassination of Professor Samuel Paty.
On October 23, 2020, he tweeted a photo of the footballer posing next to a former imam from Meaux (Seine-et-Marne), heard by the police after the teacher’s assassination. Rieu, unsuccessful Reconquest candidate for the 2022 legislative elections in Nice, writes in essence that it is necessary to be interested in the footballer’s relations with “the imam of Bron”. Then on November 22, 2020, he produced the photos joining armed Islamists to the image of the player pointing his finger to the sky, as a sign of prayer.
“The heart of the case is the ambiguities of Mr. Benzema who “likes” certain publications which glorify terrorism”, pleaded in defense Pierre-Vincent Lambert, pointing to a “like” of the player in favor of an athlete from Dagestan having spoken of “the enemies of Islam” in connection with cartoonists. According to Mr. Lambert, the tweets and the “juxtaposition of photos” legitimately criticized the player “in an ironic and sarcastic way”.
“I am a whistleblower on Islamist issues”, justified himself at the helm Damien Lefevre, presenting himself as “communicator”, employee of the Reconquest party. “When you are a star you have responsibilities, he sent very serious ambiguous signals. It is Mr. Benzema who should be in my place today, “said the defendant, who, during the judicial investigation, did not respond to the judge.