Bayonne: a septuagenarian sentenced to 4 months in prison for distributing Islamophobic leaflets

She was conspicuous by her absence in the courtroom. Could Gracianne, a septuagenarian under guardianship, have cowardly fled the moment to be held accountable before the courts, after having bravely sowed hatred of Islam in the streets of Bayonne?

The question was on everyone’s lips this Tuesday, February 6, tormenting many minds inside and outside the precincts of the correctional chamber of the Bayonne judicial court, such as the trial of this 72-year-old Bayonnaise, in hardly peaceful retirement. , was expected.

To the great dismay of all those who wanted to finally know, from her own mouth, the reasons which pushed her to distribute particularly virulent and threatening Islamophobic leaflets, at the end of August and beginning of September 2023, targeting in particular the faithful of the local mosque, Gracianne preferred, this time, to play the Arlesians rather than the troublemakers…

Prosecuted for “public incitement to hatred based on race or religion“, this very tormented senior, clearly more gifted at throwing Muslims out to pasture than at knitting – her lawyer insisting on her bipolarity – was condemned to four months in prison and a fine of 2,000 euros by the Bayonne judicial court.

As France Bleu reminds us,During her custody, without being consumed in the least by remorse, she admitted to being the author of the leaflets and that the object of her approach was to “prevent and alert”.

The president of the court, Emmanuelle Adoul, read his venomous and warlike prose, most damning: “We will be merciless against you Muslims,” or “We will treat you like outcasts.” Provocation to hatred is perfectly characterized, according to the prosecution. The public prosecutor Jean-Claude Belot considered that these remarks are simply “a call to war”.