She decided. The Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal on Wednesday refused the extradition of a 60-year-old Monegasque, against whom the Principality had issued an international arrest warrant for insults and slanderous denunciation.
Didier Garofalo presents himself as a political opponent denouncing the Monegasque legal system on social networks. He specifically attacks magistrates, police officers, politicians, and in particular the former director of judicial services, now Minister of External Relations and Cooperation.
Charged with a judicial investigation opened on March 14, 2019, two investigating judges from Monaco wish to indict him for five offenses: insults and public defamation, incitement to hatred, harassment and slanderous denunciation.
“It was hell because I have different political ideas”
Didier Garofalo, who left the Principality fourteen years ago, was arrested on June 8 in the Var. Due to the unfavorable opinion on his surrender to the Monegasque judicial authorities, the investigating chamber had ordered his immediate release.
Before the Court of Appeal where he appeared on June 16, Didier Garofalo explained that he left Monaco following his candidacy for elections. “It was hell because I have different political ideas and that bothers some people. In my country, I can’t stand being told to shut up, ”he said, even assuring that he was considering asking for political asylum in France. For his lawyer, Me Yaël Sitbon, “the offenses covered by the extradition request are clearly of a political nature”.
Not the same sanctions as in Monaco
In its judgment, the court observed that “the extradition request corresponds, for four offenses, to the prosecution of offenses limiting freedom of expression that French law excludes from its repressive field or does not impose penalties that could give rise to extradition ”. Defamation and insult are simply punished with fines, which does not fall within the scope of the European extradition convention.
Regarding the slanderous denunciation as presented by the Monegasque judicial authorities, the Aix judges considered that it did not correspond to the definition of this offense in French law.
Didier Garofalo lives in the Var. He is preparing a thesis on animal protection and plans to take the lawyer exam.