PARIS —The French Constitutional Council on Thursday has ruled against the criminalization of genocide denial, Nouvelles d’Armenie reported.
The Council stated that it is an “unnecessary and disproportionate attack against freedom of speech” and rescinded the ruling which labeled the denial as a “hate crime.”
“This ruling causes uncertainty regarding expressions and comments on historical matters. Thereby, this ruling is an unnecessary and disproportionate attack against freedom of speech,” the Council said.
The French Senate on October 14, 2016 approved a bill criminalizing denial of the Armenian Genocide. The law carried the punishment of a 45,000-euro fine to all those who failed to observe it.
In response to the repealing of the law, the Coordinating Council of Armenian Organizations of France (CCAF) has said “the Constitutional Council has the moral and political responsibility for exposing many French citizens, and especially those of Armenian origin, to the aggression with complete impunity of Turkey’s state denial.”
The CCAF said they will “never accept such a submission and will continue to denounce and combat denialism which has no connection with any historical debate and instead participates in the justification of the crime of genocide.”
They should also decriminalize holocaust denial…
They don’t dare decriminalize holocaust denial, they are f..kn sold to however pays more.
I think the Armenian Nation should not keep silent in the face of such a racist ruling by the French Constitutional Council; remember that the same Council has ruled to criminalize the denial of the Jewish Genocide; this discriminatory double standard applied to the Armenian Genocide is an insult to the Armenian Nation and anti Armenian, and equates to racism. The Council members have made a mockery of French “Democracy” over the head of the highly civilized Great French population.
In consequence, the Armenian Nation should absolutely make public the individual names of the Council Members and subsequently sue them individually within the French justice system, thus ridiculing and exposing them to the public, no matter as to whether the Armenian Nation wins the case or not, to teach a lesson to those who dare try to mess with the Armenian Nation in the future.
Hayaser
Follow the money.
How was the current law different from the previous one that the court had rejected?