A woman wrongly claimed on Facebook that firefighters killed a cat in Nîmes in July 2020.
There you go, it’s final. The trial is closed. In Marguerittes, at the municipal park Mas Pradon, a cat died this Sunday, July 18, 2020. But the firefighters who had been called for help did not have it. “tortured” and are not responsible for his death as some witnesses claimed. Young people who attacked voluntary sappers (insults, slaps, throwing stones, etc.) were sentenced at first instance and on appeal for willful violence. The two defendants, aged 27 and 23, reproached the firefighters for their behavior and a sudden gesture that would have caused the death of the animal.
To close the case, this Thursday, in correctional, a mother of a family defended by Me Marion Touzellier was sentenced for defamation and public insult via Facebook to € 1,000 suspended fines. It will have to compensate the departmental fire and rescue service of Gard (500 €) and the friendly of the firefighters of Marguerittes (500 €).
Four audiences
This mother had left messages on the public Facebook page of the firefighters’ association and on her own page where she suggested that volunteer firefighters had behaved badly and had manhandled the cat. At the hearing, the defendant apologized and explained that she had not witnessed the scene. She was indeed on the site with her family but before the intervention of the firefighters. The cat was already in a bad state. She then returned to the scene, at the request of her children, to feed the cat.
It took all the same an investigation, four hearings with additional information at first instance, a demonstration by firefighters to come to the end of this case. The president and director of Sdis reaffirmed, in a press release, their full support for the firefighters. The Sdis recalls that it will not hesitate to initiate proceedings and will quote directly in correctional “all those who believe insult and outrage the firefighters through social networks.”
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