Jacques Attali announces that he will appeal the acquittal of graffiti artist Lekto. The latter was tried by the Avignon criminal court after a fresco showing the economist as a puppeteer manipulating Emmanuel Macron.
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“I decided to appeal and the prosecution does the same“, announced Jacques Attali on the social network .
The graffiti artist, prosecuted for public insult and provocation of discrimination, was acquitted on Thursday November 23 by the Avignon criminal court. The incriminating fresco had been erased. Jacques Attali and several associations filed a complaint at the beginning of July 2022. Lekto’s work had provoked a lively controversy between those seeing it as anti-Semitic symbolism and those evoking artistic freedom.
“There is no evidence to confirm […] an anti-Semitic feeling”
The 31-year-old young man was prosecuted for public insult and provocation based on origin or religion. 6,000 euros fine including 2,000 euros suspended was requested by the prosecutor against the graffiti artist. In its conclusions, the Avignon criminal court considered that nothing proves with a “absolute certainty that the use of the puppet was driven by anti-Semitic sentiment.“He decided in favor of a release, evoking”the free illustration of a political criticism.“
“The disputed fresco does not contain any implicit or explicit element which would reveal anything other than a political satire of two important figures in French political life“, estimates the court. A new trial will therefore have to be held.
