A one-year suspended prison sentence was requested on Thursday March 28 against a CGT leader from the North, tried in Lille for “apology of terrorism” after a controversial leaflet supporting the Palestinians. The decision was reserved until April 18.
“This leaflet presents these horrors as if they were inevitable”launched the prosecutor. “It is a legitimization of a mass attack under the cover of a historical analysis”she added, considering the offense “perfectly characterized”.
As responsible for the publication of the CGT 59 website, Jean-Paul Delescaut, 57, is on trial for “public apology for an act of terrorism” and “public incitement to hatred or violence”, in following the broadcast of a message on October 10, 2023, three days after Hamas’ bloody attack on Israel.
One passage was particularly called into question: “The horrors of the illegal occupation have piled up. Since Saturday [7 octobre 2023], they receive the responses they provoked. » Removed from the website, the leaflet was replaced by a version “confederal” corrected three days later.
A single statement, then silence
Shaved head, glasses, earrings and white hooded sweatshirt, the trade unionist, pumped up after being welcomed to the cheers of several hundred activists, who made him a guard of honor upon his arrival at court , told the audience that he only wanted to make a statement.
In a slightly hesitant tone, he insisted on the “values of humanity, defense of employees, against social injustice and for solidarity between peoples” of the CGT. “We condemn terrorist acts in general and of course that of October 7. We condemn all violence”he explained, repeating that he was speaking on behalf of the “collective”.
During four hours of hearing, this caregiver at the Valenciennes hospital center (North) remained almost impassive in the face of the questions from the president and the lawyers, opposing a wall of silence to each question: “I will stand by my statement. »
Support from Sophie Binet and Jean-Luc Mélenchon
His lawyers, Mare Arié Alimi and Ioannis Kappopoulos, both pleaded for acquittal, Me Alimi raising a problem of interpretation. “This leaflet is not a masterpiece, but at no time does it mention Hamas’ modalities of action”nor does it present them in a favorable light, he noted.
Lawyers for the civil parties, including the Organization of European Jews and the Israelite Community Association (ACI) of Lille, requested the conviction of the CGT activist.
The general secretary of the CGT, Sophie Binet, who came to Lille at midday in support, as did the leader of La France insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, testified in a three-minute video broadcast at the trial. She believes that the arrests of union activists “are part of a very worrying climate of repression of trade union freedoms”, with “more than 1,000 activists prosecuted in the name of actions carried out collectively by the CGT” against pension reform.