Loïc Akono, player of the Metz basketball club Panoramic
The alleged author of racist remarks having targeted Loïc Akono, a player from the Metz basketball club, in January has been identified and will be tried in July in particular for “public insult based on origin, ethnicity, nation, race or religion“, announced Friday the parquet floor.
“The 73-year-old respondent was heard in a free hearing” THURSDAY, “and admitted to having used the term + bonobo +“, while he attended on January 29 in Charleville-Mezières a match of the local team against the Messin club of “Gunners(National 2, 4th division), said city prosecutor Magali Josse in a statement.
Summoned to court forpublic insult based on origin, ethnicity, nation, race or religion” And “incitement to hatred at a sporting event“, he will be tried on July 3, she added. He “incurs a one-year prison sentence and a fine of 45,000 euros, in addition to the additional penalty of a ban on entering a sports venue for a period of five years“.
The Charleville-Mézières prosecutor’s office opened a preliminary investigation after the incident, which the player reported on Twitter. “I decided to leave the field today in Charleville-Mézières after this sentence from a person in the stands + Get up bonobo +“, (a monkey from the chimpanzee family, editor’s note), had written the 35-year-old player. He then, with the Messin club, filed three complaints against X.
Following this affair, the French Basketball Federation (FFBB) imposed a precautionary closed session on all home matches of the Charleville-Mézières club.
A meeting of the Disciplinary Committee must also be held in Paris on February 22, at the headquarters of the FFBB, with which the Metz club will be associated. Winner of the Coupe de France in 2005 with Gravelines, French ProB champion with Boulogne-sur-Mer and Nanterre, the leader quickly received broad support from the basketball world, with many players sending him messages to this effect on social networks.
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