“You will remain a poor black woman at the end of the story”: Dieudonné acquitted for racist insults towards Rachel Khan

2023-10-06 02:35:51

This time, he escapes (for the moment) a new conviction for racism. The polemicist Dieudonné M’bala M’bala was acquitted on appeal on Thursday in Paris, after being convicted at first instance of racist insults in 2020 towards the writer and actress Rachel Khan.

Dieudonné was on trial for having declared, in a video of October 6, 2020 in “response” to Rachel Khan: “You will remain a poor black woman at the end of the story”. The latter had written an article entitled “Faced with the anti-Semitic punchlines of rapper Freeze Corleone, let’s not create a Dieudonné 2.0”, on September 21, 2020, in which she recalled being the granddaughter of a deportee.

For these comments, Dieudonné was sentenced in September 2022 by the Paris Criminal Court to 10,000 euros in day fines – a fine which, if not paid, could result in prison. He had appealed. On Thursday, the court of appeal overturned this decision and released the defendant.

A cassation appeal from Rachel Khan and Licra

“In the context in which they were made, the remarks pursued cannot constitute an outrageous expression, terms of contempt or invective,” considers the court of appeal in its decision. “On the other hand, they express the fatalistic opinion of the defendant according to which a person with African roots will never be fully considered as part of his national or religious community,” adds the court of appeal.

“We are really happy to have been heard to the extent that Dieudonné has defined himself for a very long time as a Negro and that word for him is absolutely not insulting,” reacted Me Karim Laouafi, his lawyer .

Ms. Khan’s lawyer, Mr. Richard Malka, announced that he was filing a cassation appeal. Licra, civil party, will do the same. “I find the decision to be extremely surprising,” said Me Ilana Soskin, lawyer for the association. “The civil party has been essentialized” and the remarks pursued “constitute an extremely outrageous racial insult,” she added.