The former captain of the French football team sentenced. Patrice Evra was fined 1,000 euros on Thursday for homophobic insult by the Paris police court, for remarks targeting Paris Saint-Germain dating from 2019.
The 41-year-old ex-footballer was also ordered to pay 1,500 euros in damages to the two civil party associations, Mousse and Stop Homophobia, as well as 1,000 euros each for legal fees.
“Paris, you are fags”
In a video posted on social networks in March 2019 after a victory for Manchester United against PSG in the Champions League, the former defender and captain of the Mancunian club launched in particular: “Paris, you are fags, you are fags. .. Here, it’s the men who talk. »
Mousse and Stop Homophobia, supported by the anti-homophobia collective Rouge Direct, had filed a complaint for “public insult towards a group of people because of their sexual orientation”. But the investigating judge had reclassified the facts as “non-public insult” and referred the case to the police court, considering that the ex-footballer had “expressed himself in a private setting for the making of a video which was later posted on Snapchat without his knowledge.
Thursday, Patrice Evra’s lawyer did not wish to react immediately before being able to reach his client, who currently resides in Dubai.
“Homophobic comments fuel hatred”
In a press release, Me Étienne Deshoulières, lawyer for the associations, declared that “the homophobic remarks of a personality like Patrice Evra fuel hatred and violence against LGBT people, in particular in countries where homosexuality is criminally repressed, like in Senegal, the country where Patrice Evra is from”.
During the trial on December 15, the prosecutor had requested a fine of 1,500 euros, including 300 euros suspended, considering that it was Patrice Evra’s “responsibility” as a “media personality” to “hold a citizen discourse and respectful of all.
The council of the ex-athlete, Jérôme Boursican, had pleaded that he had not “wanted to harm the homosexual community”. “What he is aiming for is PSG,” he assured, recalling that the ex-sportsman had published an apology video the day after it was broadcast.
