Last Updated on March 5, 2023
A French senator is facing criminal charges after stating that “immigration kills the youth of France” in a tweet published last January.
Populist French Senator Stéphane Ravier, a former member of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally who later joined Eric Zemmour’s Reconquest party last year, faces trial on March 9 in in the criminal court of Marseilles, Breitbart News reported. He will face charges of of “incitement to discrimination, hatred, or violence.”
The charges stem from a January 2022 tweet in which Ravier commented on the murder of a French teen at the hands of a 62-year-old migrant from Senegal. “Theo, 18 years old, murdered yesterday by a Senegalese [migrant]… Immigration kills the youth of France,” wrote the French senator.
A complaint was filed over the tweet by the the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra) and the League for Human Rights (LDH), two “anti-hate” groups. The groups accused Ravier of inciting “hate” against migrants.
Alain Lothe, a civil party in the case, also alleged that by publishing his tweet, “the elected official is not content to react to a news event but wants to highlight the nationality of its author and to involve all people from immigrant backgrounds.”
The populist French senator has faced legal action over speech in the past. Last year, Ravier was convicted of making a comment deemed “sexist” against a female socialist senator. He was ultimately fined 1,500 Euros for that offense.
