Orléans court sentences creator of racist stickers to six-month suspended sentence

The Orléans criminal court on Thursday handed a six-month suspended sentence to the creator of racist and Islamophobic stickers. The 19-year-old, charged with public incitement to hatred, violence, and discrimination based on religion, had plastered the stickers last May in the city center and on the university campus. According to AFP, his sentence also includes a two-year probationary suspension with provisional execution, along with mandatory medical treatment, employment or training, 70 hours of community service, and a ban on carrying weapons.

The prosecutor had sought a twelve-month probationary suspension, but the court took into account his diminished capacity at the time of the events. The defendant must also pay a €200 fine and compensate the civil parties, including SOS Racisme, the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA), and the Human Rights League (LDH). Arrested about ten days after the stickers were discovered, he admitted to the acts but denied glorifying Nazism, claiming instead that he acted «out of provocation», determined to confront antifascists.

Some of the stickers referenced the so-called «Puaud Brigade», a tribute to Edgard Puaud, an officer from Orléans who led the SS Charlemagne division under the Nazi regime. Investigators also found that the young man wore a t-shirt with a symbol used by SS organizations.

According to local antifascists, the young man is «at the head of the Puaud Brigade», which appeared on TikTok and Instagram last spring and reportedly consists of «three or four young people». Just days before his actions, he also took part in a far-right demonstration in Paris.