A Nice football supporter was sentenced, Wednesday, October 13, by the Nice Criminal Court, to one year in prison, and three years of stadium ban, for “Apology for crimes against humanity” and “Incitement to racial hatred”.
He was filmed performing a Nazi salute on August 22, during the stormy meeting between OGC Nice and Olympique de Marseille, definitively stopped in the 78th minute after an invasion of the field by supporters of Nice.
The sentence is lower than the requisitions of the prosecutor who had called for nine months in prison, with home detention under electronic bracelet and a five-year stadium ban.
This 31-year-old salesman, who had already been sentenced to three months in prison for aggravated violence, was filmed at half-time miming a kippah and giving the Nazi salute to Marseille supporters, even before the incidents which had led to the stoppage of the meeting. The video was posted on social media.
“The World Cup of stupidity”
“It is a sanction which is adapted, reacted his lawyer Me Mathurin Lauze. The firm imprisonment which was required was in my opinion a sentence much too heavy in relation to the personality and in relation to the facts. “
For the prosecutor, “The facts are intolerable. Nazism is the extermination of 6 million Jews ”. For mee David Rebibou, lawyer for the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (Crif), “He heard stigmatize the Jewish community by the gesture of the outstretched arm, it is a glorification of the Nazi regime”.
The supporter recognized him “An abject provocation”, assuring that he did not want “Not target a person of Jewish faith in particular”. “It’s a bit like the World Cup of human stupidity”, also admitted his lawyer.
The SOS Racisme association, which had lodged a complaint, obtained one euro in damages as well as the MRAP, Sportitude, the Licra, the Crif and the Professional Football League (LFP), which had all brought civil action. What OGC Nice hadn’t done.
The Nice-OM meeting was marked by many incidents. A Nice supporter, author of a kick in the direction of Marseille player Dimitri Payet, was sentenced at the end of September to a one-year suspended prison sentence and five years of stadium ban. Five other Nice supporters who had invaded the lawn will be judged on February 23.