Cartoonist ‘should be acquitted’

A CARTOONIST taken to court by a human rights group over claims his drawings were ‘anti-Semitic’ should be acquitted, a public prosecutor has said.

Artist Siné was taken to court by the Licra (ligue internationale contre le racisme et l’antisémitisme) over two cartoons that appeared in the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

In one cartoon on July 2 he hinted that the marriage of the president’s son Jean Sarkozy to Jessica Sebaoun-Darty, the Jewish heiress to the Darty white goods chain store, and his possible conversion to her religion, would be a good step for his career.

A second cartoon was based on a veiled Muslim women.

During the trial Siné, 80, who has been sacked by Charlie Hebdo, was led out of the courtroom because of illness.

The cartoonist told the court that his drawing was not anti-Semitic.

“What I wanted to denounce was the ambitiousness of Mr Sarkozy,” he said.

Siné was supported in court by the cartoonist Guy Bedos and former Algerian prime minister Sid Ahmed Ghozali

Speaking on behalf of the Licra, the philosopher Bernard Henry-Lévy said that “a line had been crossed” and that Siné has followed in the steps of the “old anti-Semitism of France”.

During the case the prosecutor for the Republic Bernard Reynaud said that the cartoons appeared in a newspaper that was always “on provocative ground” but were not racist and did not provoke hatred.

He said Siné should be acquitted and warned that people should not “fall into political correctness.”

A judgement is due on February 24.

Photo: AFP/ Philippe Merle