Suspended sentence for antisemitic sign

A TEACHER in eastern France received a suspended jail sentence last Wednesday for inciting racial hatred after brandishing an antisemitic sign at a demonstration over the government’s COVID-19 health pass.

Cassandre Fristot, 34, was photographed at the demonstration in the city of Metz on August 7 holding a sign scrawled with the surnames of several well-known figures from politics, business, and the media labelled “traitors!!!”

Many of those cited were Jewish such as US financier George Soros, French philosopher Bernard Henri-Levy and former French health minister Agnes Buzyn.

Other Jewish names appeared on the sign, including “Rotschild” (sic) and Salomon.

The sign, which also cited President Emmanuel Macron and current Health Minister Olivier Veran, also bore the question “but who?” – a hashtag used by conspiracy theorists to perpetuate the antisemitic claim that Jews control the media.

Fristot, a former local councillor with Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front (now called the National Rally), was suspended from her job as a German teacher in the wake of the picture.

She denied it was antisemitic.

The six-month suspended sentence handed down by a court in Metz was stiffer than the three-month suspended sentence state prosecutors had requested.

Fristot was also ordered to pay between one euro and 300 euros ($350) in damages to eight anti-racism groups that joined the case as plaintiffs.

She was not in court for the ruling.

Annie Levi-Cyferman, a lawyer for France’s Human Rights League, hailed the judgement as “a victory for everything that constitutes incitement to hatred” and praised the court for not “being fooled” by the sign’s “hidden” message.

The sign, which was widely shared on social media, caused an outcry in the political class and among anti-racism campaigners.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin called it “despicable” and vowed Fristot would be punished.

“Antisemitism is a crime, not an opinion,” he tweeted in August.