The alleged perpetrator 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 because of origin, ethnicity, nation, race or religion,” the prosecutor’s office announced on Friday.
“The 73-year-old respondent was heard in a free hearing and admitted having used the term bonobo”, when he attended a match of the local team against the club on January 29 in Charleville-Mézières. Messin des “Canonniers” (National 2, 4th division), said in a press release the city prosecutor, Magali Josse.
Summoned to court for “public insult due to origin, ethnicity, nation, race or religion” and “incitement to hatred during a sporting event”, he will be tried on July 3, a- 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 had opened a preliminary investigation after the incident, which the player had reported on Twitter. “I decided to leave the field today in Charleville-Mézières after this sentence from a person in the bleachers: get up bonobo (a monkey of the chimpanzee family) “, had written the player of 35 years. He then, with the Messin club, filed three complaints against X.
Following this case, the French Basketball Federation (FFBB) imposed a precautionary closed session on all home games 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 Pro B champion with Boulogne-sur-Mer and Nanterre, the leader quickly received wide support from the basketball world, with many players sending him messages to this effect on social networks.