“The two offenses covered by the complaint do not appear to be serious. » Thursday April 18, the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office declared the dismissal of the complaint against comedian Guillaume Meurice for “provocation to violence and anti-Semitic hatred” and “public insults of an anti-Semitic nature”, Le Monde learned from from the public prosecutor’s office, Monday April 22, confirming information from Libération.
The complaint was filed on November 6, 2023 by “the European Jewish Organization [and] gave rise to a preliminary investigation led by the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office and entrusted to the BRDP [brigade for the repression of delinquency against the person]” after that Guillaume Meurice, during the show “Le Grand Dimanche evening”, on France Inter, Sunday October 29, launched into an inventory of “disguises to scare” as Halloween approached. “So, at the moment, there is the Netanyahu disguise, which works quite well to scare people,” he said. See who it is? Kind of a Nazi, but without a foreskin. »
The sentence sparked an outcry, pushing Adèle Van Reeth, director of France Inter, to speak out after several hundred emails and calls flooded Radio France. She then condemned the death threats “which are unacceptable and criminally reprehensible” of which the comedian was the target.
Internally, Mr. Meurice had been summoned by Sibyle Veil, the boss of Radio France, who had notified him of a “warning”, Ms. Veil assuring in an interview with La Tribune du Dimanche that she did not wish to fire him, for “not to send a signal that some would be quick to exploit.” The comedian, believing that he had not “made a mistake and was only doing his job”, declared that he was contesting this warning in court. The Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (Arcom), for its part, contacted at the end of October, sent a warning to Radio France.