After four days of hearing, the indictments finally fell this Tuesday against the thirteen people tried in Paris for the cyberharassment of Magali Berdah. The sentences range from five months in prison to six months in prison. The magistrate also asked the court to force all the defendants to follow a citizenship course.
“Insults, threats, propagation of rumors, incitement to suicide, publication of personal data: nothing was spared” to Magali Berdah, underlined in her indictment before the criminal court the deputy prosecutor, Sophie Touchais. However, “cyberharassment does not stop on the Internet, it infiltrates your life and that of your loved ones” and “can lead to suicide,” she added, emphasizing the serious psychological repercussions of this affair for the victim, who came to tell the stand that she had been “on the verge of throwing herself out of the window”.
“Anti-Semitism and sexism acted as a booster”
Such requisitions show that “we are at a turning point in the awareness of what cyberharassment is and the seriousness of its consequences”, commented to AFP, during a recess of the hearing, the one of Magali Berdah’s lawyers, Me Rachel-Flore Pardo.
The heaviest sentence, one year in prison including six months suspended, was requested against a 32-year-old man, who wrote to the victim: “It’s a shame Hitler didn’t take care of your grandparents.” (sic). In this case, “anti-Semitism and sexism acted as a booster for cyberharassment,” Me Rachel-Flore Pardo observed in court. “Nothing can justify violence and certainly not the behavior of the person who is the target,” she added, in reference to the controversies targeting Shauna Events, Magali Berdah’s company which connects influencers and brands .
These controversies were notably relayed by the rapper Booba – indicted in this case but not concerned by the current trial. Booba launched a crusade in 2022 against Magali Berdah and those he calls “influvoleurs”, whom he accuses of multiple scams to the detriment of Internet users. This procedure for cyberharassment concerns a total of 28 defendants. Among them, 15 are to be tried for similar facts during two subsequent trials, in mid-December and the end of January.