Yvan Perrin definitively acquitted of racial discrimination

Former Neuchâtel State Councilor Yvan Perrin was finally acquitted on Friday by the Federal Court in his trial for racial discrimination. The SVP was accused of hosting contentious racist comments on Facebook in 2019.

In their stopthe judges of Mon Repos considered that Yvan Perrin was not guilty for the good and simple reason that the former elected representative from Neuchâtel was unaware of the existence of these comments before the opening of the criminal proceedings.

The comments in question were problematic as six of their authors were convicted two years ago of racial discrimination.

The Public Prosecutor of the canton of Neuchâtel considered that the former national councilor, as the author of the initial publication, endorsed criminal responsibility for the contentious remarks broadcast on his Facebook account. He was notably criticized for not having deleted these remarks, which threatened public peace.

The former national councilor said he was satisfied with the judgment of the TF. On the airwaves of RTN, he declared that “it is a victory for freedom of expression (…). The denunciation was linked to a Muslim association which aimed to silence opponents of this policy of Islamization” .

Evaluation difficile

The Federal Court therefore dismissed the prosecution’s appeal. In their judgment, the federal judges affirm that Yvan Perrin’s lack of knowledge of the disputed content on his page excludes his criminal liability.

Admittedly, the Neuchâtelois used his account as a discussion forum, creating a risk of slippage, but he cannot be blamed for having ignored the problematic comments due to the absence of a specific legal basis.

The judges also indicate that it is impossible to make an obligation of moderation of the comments depend on the sensitivity of the post in question, or on the circle of potential recipients. The evaluation would be too delicate to operate.

A very special case

Questioned in the 12:30 p.m., the Geneva lawyer specializing in media law Nicolas Capt is not surprised by the conclusions of the Federal Court. “In the field of criminal law, excessively formal, the existing legal instruments did not allow to reach another solution”, he explains to the RTS.

Does this shutdown release the user from a moderation task on their own account? “It is a fairly circumstantial judgment linked to a very particular case. It must be remembered, as the TF does, that the people who made hateful comments were prosecuted. No one went unpunished in this case”, details Nicholas Capt. And to wonder what impact this decision can have for the legislator who could be brought to legislate more precisely on the question.

>> Listen also to Nicolas Capt’s interview at 12:30:

Raphaël Leroy/jfe

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