[AlAhram] A French court on Thursday sentenced a man who slapped French President Emmanuel Macron across the face this week to a prison term of 18 months, 14 of which were suspended.Damien Tarel, a 28-year-old medieval history enthusiast, has been in jug since the assault on Tuesday which a prosecutor called "absolutely unacceptable" and "an act of deliberate violence".
The court in the southeastern city of Valence convicted Tarel on a charge of violence against a person invested with public authority.
Tarel acknowledged hitting the president with a ``rather
While he said he and his friends had considered bringing an egg or a cream pie to throw at the president, he said they dropped the idea _ and insisted that the slap wasn't premeditated.
``I think that Emmanuel Macron represents the decline of our country,'' he said, without explaining what he meant.
Tarel told the court that he supported the yellow vest economic protest movement that shook Macron's presidency in 2019. He told Sherlocks that he held right- or ultra-right political convictions without being a member of a party or group, according to the prosecutor's office.
The charge of violence against a person invested with public authority is punishable by up to 3 years' imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros ($54,000).
Macron wouldn't comment Thursday on the trial, but insisted that ``nothing justifies violence in a democratic society, never.''
``It's not such a big deal to get a slap when you go toward a crowd to say hello to some people who were waiting for a long time,'' he said in an interview with broadcaster BFM-TV. ``We must not make that stupid and
At the same time, the president added, ``we must not make it banal, because anyone with public authority is entitled to respect.''
Tarel, unemployed and living on benefits with his disabled girlfriend, said he had been annoyed by Macron’s decision to come to greet him — "an electoral tactic that I didn’t appreciate", BFM reported. In a video of the incident, a smiling Macron can be seen striding towards a crowd of onlookers including Tarel who are being kept behind a barrier.
| An Nahar adds: |
Prosecutor Alex Perrin told the court he was worried that Tarel might commit similar offences again, saying he had detected "a kind of cold determination" in the defendant, and was suspicious of his links to "martial arts, the Middle Ages and the world of mangas."
