The polemicist Dieudonné was sentenced this Friday to 200 days-fine at 30 euros for concealment of fraud in Lille, for shows organized in the metropolis under the guise of selling cosmetics or a theatrical workshop.
Noémie Montagne, director of the two companies which rented the rooms under a false pretext, was fined 2,000 euros for fraud. During the hearing on June 25, she was presented by the judge as the wife of Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, her lawyers assuring on the contrary that she was neither his wife nor his companion.
The two defendants were also ordered to pay 5,000 euros in damages to the Public Condition of Roubaix, recognized as a civil party, and 1,500 euros for legal costs.
Multiple convictions
In question, shows by the comedian, already condemned several times for racial insults and incitement to hatred, organized in 2018 and 2019 in Roubaix, La Chapelle d’Armentières and Marcq-en-Barœul, in the north of France .
At the Condition publique de Roubaix, which had previously refused to rent a room in Dieudonné, one of the companies headed by Ms. Montagne had indicated that it wanted to organize a sale of cosmetics. The Hippodrome de Marcq-en-Barœul expected to host a theatrical training workshop, the Salons Kennedy de La Chapelle d’Armentières a sale of textiles and DVDs.
Absent at the hearing
The mayor of Marcq-en-Baroeul had issued an order banning the show but the administrative court had canceled it and the performance had taken place, as in Roubaix and La Chapelle d’Armentières, in front of around 600 spectators each time.
“Given the personality of Mr. M’Bala M’Bala, he has difficulty finding places to perform and it is by hiding behind companies and assumed names that he manages to find them. », Had pointed out the prosecutor, evoking reports elsewhere in France. That day, neither of the two defendants was present at the hearing.
He will explain himself … on stage
According to his lawyer, Me David de Stefano, Dieudonné appealed against this judgment. “He will explain his approach, during a show in Lille on July 25, since he is not inadmissible” – contrary to the requisitions of the prosecution which had requested a ban on stay in the department – declared the lawyer.
“He was being prosecuted for concealment of swindle and the only argument which was put forward was the fact that he would be the husband of Mrs. Montagne” and would have learned of the swindle by “a confidence on the pillow. But he has never been married to Ms. Montagne, ”said Me de Stefano.