At the correctional court in Paris,
“Fat humor, redneck” for one. “A joke” on the edge of a “sketch” for the second. Such was, this Wednesday afternoon, the line of defense of the two young men tried for having staged, in mid-December, simulating shooting with a large caliber weapon against Emmanuel Macron and elected officials. of rebellious France, Raquel Garrido or Alexis Corbière. “Never, we were in a threatening tone. For us, it was jovial, the goal was not to hurt, ”insists Alain R., hands joined, in front of the bar of the 17th chamber of the Paris Criminal Court.
He, in his thirties, works as a chef at home. His co-defendant, Benjamin S., 21, is a soldier in the army. Both met on December 8 at the Villepinte meeting of Eric Zemmour (the latter condemned the facts). It is, they explain, their common passion for shooting that brought them together. A week after the meeting, they meet at the Gonesse shooting range, in Seine-Saint-Denis, where Alain R. trains regularly. This is where they will shoot short videos, initially published as a “story” on their Instagram accounts, but made public the next day by an anti-fascist group and a journalist from Mediapart.
“Two bullets, three dead, it ricocheted off an antifa”
“Come on, friends, who are we going to break out here? The young gaucho, the young communist, the young mental bugger? exclaims the first, before opening fire, a sniper rifle in hand, then miming a second shot at Emmanuel Macron. In a second video, his sidekick targets the former spokesperson for France Insoumise, Raquel Garrido. “Wild Garrido,” he exclaims. Very hairy and very voracious sows, so you need big cartridges. “He then mimics a shot at LFI deputy Alexis Corbière. “Two bullets, three dead, it ricocheted off an antifa,” he says, before continuing his dummy shots. “There are Algerian and Moroccan flags, I saw there, so we will rush to shoot. »
“All the people on my account understood that it was not serious, insists at the helm Benjamin S, gray shirt and tattoo on the bottom of the skull. No one told me “you’re right, we have to take action”. Both claim that these videos were of a “private” nature and were not intended to be broadcast anywhere other than on their accounts, which were otherwise locked. He has 400 subscribers, Alain R. only 14. “I smile, we are not hooded, we are not threatening on the videos”, continues the defendant, who is currently the subject of a procedure to be deregistered of the Army. And to insist: “It’s just that at the time, it made us laugh, and I told myself that the people to whom I was going to share the video, it was going to make them laugh. »
“We go to bed, we tickle each other”
When the court pointed out to them the racist nature of their remarks, both were offended, claiming to be, for one of Moroccan origin, for the other of Algerian origin. “We go to bed, we tickle each other”, assures Alain R.. What about this term, “mental bougnoule” that he uses? He assures that it is simply a question of evoking the “Arab mentality”. “If the remarks had been made by two people typical of the Maghreb, the impact would not have been the same”, considers his co-defendant.
A humor that clearly did not make the main stakeholders laugh. If Emmanuel Macron did not file a civil action, the two elected LFI filed a complaint. Alexis Corbière was even present this Wednesday. “I want them to understand that even out of 400 people, this can be interpreted as a signal, that it can make someone’s head spin”, insists the deputy, who confides that after his debate with Eric Zemmour on the Cyril Hanouna’s set, on December 16, he received “hundreds of very violent messages on social networks”. The public prosecutor requested four months of suspended detention against them, a “preventive and dissuasive sentence”, and demanded a ban on carrying weapons for 5 years. The decision was reserved for March 4.