The prosecution requested on Monday January 8 eight months in prison and five years of ineligibility against Dieudonné, for “receiving property obtained with the aid of fraud” before the Rennes judicial court. The controversial 57-year-old comedian is accused of having given a show in a village in the Rennes region, without the owners of the venue having knowledge of the artist’s identity during the rental. The prosecution was initiated by the public prosecutor and the owners did not file a complaint.
The reservation, obtained “by fraudulent means”, according to the prosecutor, had been made by the president of the production company Kamdo. Presented as Dieudonné’s companion by the president, the young woman was herself prosecuted for fraud but absent from the hearing. The prosecutor requested a 5,000 euro fine against her and a one-year deprivation of eligibility. The decision will be made on January 22. The Kamdo company, co-producer of the Dieudonné show, had reserved a performance hall for February 25, 2023 for a “theatrical performance” in Piré-Chance, in the south-east of Rennes.
Kamdo then neglected to specify that this rental concerned a Dieudonné show which took place without incident. But the owners were presented with a fait accompli by discovering the artist’s name at the last moment. Throughout the hearing, Dieudonné, calm and courteous, took refuge behind his role as an artist who had no responsibility in the companies ensuring the logistics and organization of his shows. “My job is to be operational on D-day in front of the public. I don’t deal with that (the rental of rooms, Editor’s note),” he said, denouncing a “political desire to silence him.”
His lawyer, Maître Karim Laoufi, underlined the delicacy of the file comprising “only a press article and a completely legal rental contract”. “A succession of kept silences does not constitute fraud”, he argued, estimating: “The acquittal is necessary as soon as the fraudulent maneuver does not result from any element of the file”. Last September, a Dieudonné show planned at the Zénith in Paris was banned by the police prefect due to “risk of serious disturbances to public order” in view of his repeated anti-Semitic remarks.
