Fifteen people will be tried before the Paris Criminal Court in early October for the homophobic cyberbullying of singer Eddy de Pretto after a concert in a church in June 2021.
The facts date back to June 2021. Invited as part of the “Qui va piano va sano” festival to perform at the Saint-Eustache church in Paris, Eddy de Pretto had performed his piece “A quoi bon” which evokes the difficulties in reconciling his homosexuality and religion.
After his performance, he had received, according to The Parisiannearly 3,000 messages of insults and death threats on social networks.
“Do you want to sing sodom in a church? No worries, wear your balls and do the same (sic) in a mosque”, “Fuck your mother”, had notably written internet users, according to screenshots posted on the singer’s Instagram account.
Fifteen people will therefore appear on October 3 and 4 for “online harassment with ITT (total interruption of work) for more than eight days and online harassment with ITT for more than eight days committed on the basis of the sexual orientation of the victim”, according to the floor.
Arrests throughout France
As part of an investigation monitored by the National Pole for the Fight against Online Hate of the Paris Court of Justice, which began its work in early 2021, seventeen men, aged 20 to 26, were taken into custody. seen between Tuesday and Thursday.
According to the prosecution, police custody was lifted “without prosecution at this stage” and another was still in progress late Thursday afternoon.
The arrests took place throughout France: Isère, Rhône, Manche, Paris, Côte-d’Or, Haute-Loire, Gironde, Yvelines, Maine-et-Loire, Doubs, Ille-et-Vilaine, Seine-Saint- Dennis, Meuse.
The suspects were mostly unknown to the judiciary. Some are conservative Catholics.
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