The trial of seventeen people, tried for aggravated online harassment targeting the singer Eddy de Pretto, opened on Monday, October 3 before the Paris Criminal Court. Aged 20 to 26, young defendants arrested all over France, are sent back to court for the hateful and homophobic cyberbullying of the singer – present in the front row, at the hearing – following a concert he had given at the Saint-Eustache church , in Paris, in June 2021.
Invited to perform in the festival “Qui va piano va sano”, Eddy de Pretto had interpreted his piece “A quoi bon” evoking the difficulties of reconciling his homosexuality and religion. “I don’t think I’m ready to obey your Bible (…) I know what you like, I don’t think I’ve read the right books / But you’ll tell me + nah, it’s too much, you’re not healthy enough+/To join your ranks, you have to have done almost nothing”had then sung Eddy de Pretto.
Evoking these themes within a church itself? “I fully assume it”launched the singer, called to the bar. “My desire was to ask questions as an artist on crucial and major themes, I didn’t think it could have such harmful feedback.”
At the end of his performance, posted on Instagram, he indeed received nearly 3,000 messages of insults and death threats on social networks, as confirmed at the hearing by his lawyer Nicolas Verly. Hate messages that prompted him to hire the services of a bodyguard and to file a complaint, triggering an investigation opened by the National Pole for the Fight against Online Hate (PLNH) of the Paris prosecutor’s office.
“I was very afraid to leave my house, sleep disorders, (…) depressive disorders, I could not understand this violence”testified the singer, noting that the priest of Saint-Eustache had “expressed all his support”. The defendants – twelve present, five absent – will be judged as heads of online harassment, with total incapacity for work (ITT) for more than eight days, and online harassment with ITT for more than eight days, committed because of the sexual orientation of the victim. The trial is due to last until Friday.