A 62-year-old man was sentenced on Friday November 17 to eighteen months in prison with a committal warrant, for anti-Semitic tags in Strasbourg.
The man, tried by the criminal court for inciting racial hatred and advocating terrorism, was also sentenced to a fine of 1,500 euros and five years of socio-judicial supervision, detailed lawyer Raphaël Nisand to the Agence France-Presse, confirming information from the regional daily Latest News of Alsace.
“It is an exemplary decision” in its heaviness and which punishes “messages of hate”, continued Me Nisand, who defended the Compagnie des transports strasbourgeois (CTS), whose tram train was damaged.
Licra, SOS-Racisme and the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) also became civil parties in this case.
“USA Israel = Nazis”
In addition to the tram, street furniture, a supermarket parking lot and even a pharmacy had been tagged, particularly in the working-class district of Hautepierre. The events occurred between October 13 and November 14, specifies the regional daily. On all the graffiti, “the same things were repeated: ‘death to the Jews,’ ‘USA Israel = Nazis,’” Nisand said.
At the hearing, the man assured that he had “no problem with the Jews”, but was “against those who kill children”, according to the Latest News of Alsace. “I couldn’t formulate my thoughts well. It was just to inform people. I regret it,” he further explained in court, the daily reports.
In France, a total of 1,518 anti-Semitic acts and remarks have been recorded since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, and nearly 600 arrests, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin detailed on Europe 1 on Tuesday.