back to article Frenchman cuffed for naughty lip-slip email to MEP

A Frenchman faces jail for sending a risqué email to a high-profile female politician. Glamourous MEP Rachida Dati complained to the police after an unnamed 40-year-old wrote to her asking for an "inflation", the Telegraph reports. The request was a reference to a recent, widely-reported Freudian slip by Dati, who confused …

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  1. Code Monkey

    "displaying contempt towards a public servant"

    If they ever introduce that law in Blighty I'll turn myself in. And you can throw away the key.

    On a serious note, "anonymous" emails aren't big or clever and I'm not that sorry this tool's getting banged up.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Before we go any further ...

      Is anyone at the Reg a French civil servant?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        UK

        Nope we are lucky that this doesn't happen here, that sort of behaviour is considered OK..... or maybe an offence under the terrorism act...... or maybe MI6 just sorts you out on the QT.

  2. Loyal Commenter Silver badge
    Unhappy

    "displaying contempt towards a public servant".

    Shit, I hope that's not a crime here in Blighty!

    1. Graham Dawson Silver badge

      Doesn't have to be.

      It's a crime in France, we're both members of the EU and both signed up to the EU arrest warrant. It is conceivable that publishing comments on a website about a UK politician, which are then read in France and perceived as displaying contempt, could then be used to justify the issuing of an EU arrest order.

      In the end that sort of chain of events is unlikely. However, the EU has already displayed a tendency towards attempting to repress freedom of speech when it's inconvenient. The items on free speech and freedom of thought in the Lisbon constitution-in-all-but-name are so filled with caveats and conditions as to render them completely useless if the EU decides you're going to shut up. It's not impossible to believe that they would, sooner or later, adopt an EU-wide law similar to the French law. It would be harmonisation, you see.

  3. Jean-Luc
    Paris Hilton

    Makes the US look clever, almost...

    "prison sentence of up to a month"/"displaying contempt towards a public servant"

    Compared to this lot, the public prosecutors in the US bravely seeking the death penalty for teenagers convicted of texting nudie pix of themselves almost look clever.

    Almost, but not quite.

    Glad my tax $ don't have to work in France anymore (though they are rather cleverly thinking of taxing French expats).

    Paris, cuz she knows all about inflation.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Heart

      death penalty?

      Not so much. Is that ignorance talking, or are you trying to be funny?

      Either way, perhaps you should look inward for harsh criticism of intelligence - condemning an entire nation based on the actions of one cretinous, pandering politician isn't the smartest thing I've seen someone write today.

      1. Jimbo 6
        FAIL

        No-one...

        is "condemning an entire nation based on the actions of one cretinous, pandering politician".

        We're condemning an entire nation based on a law that makes it an imprisonable offence to take the piss out of cretinous, pandering politicians.

        (To be honest, I'd have thought that was the sort of law *we* would have in the UK - how that one got passed in France, without any motorways being blocked with burning sheep, I don't know. Elle est morte, la revolution.)

      2. Jean-Luc

        death penalty was an intentional hyperbole

        You know... that thing called humor. Should look it up sometime.

        And the cretinous politician is not particularly at fault. She's rather clever AFAIK, BTW.

        The problem is that they have a stupid law that allows you to be prosecuted for making fun of a public servant. That _is_ a nation-level issue. Not a silly politician issue.

        The offense was not hacking into (Palin), not physically harming, not slandering. Nor interfering with her work.

        Just sophomoric, humor.

        And I believe I have the right to criticize a country of which I am still a citizen and to which I paid enough taxes at the time to support... public servants.

  4. Graham Marsden
    WTF?

    Charges of "displaying contempt towards a public servant"???

    If we had a law like that in the UK most of the population would be guilty!

  5. Red Bren
    Big Brother

    Displaying contempt towards a public servant

    It's lucky for us commentards that the UK doesn't have such a law. Yet...

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    "displaying contempt towards a public servant"

    fuck me - don't give our mob any ideas ....

    1. Scorchio!!

      Indeed

      Indeed not; after the expenses imbroglio, various extra marital affairs and many, many more public farces, varying from illegal to merely contemptible, I can only suggest that we take a leaf from the French book, set up a guillotine in parliament square, and deal with our home grown problem with expedition. Starting with a former prime minister, whose expenses paperwork was 'accidentally' shredded, a former PM who took this country to war more times than any other PM in history, having inflicted his clandestine immigration scam on us, after asking for an electoral mandate to maintain "firm control" over immigration.

      Perhaps the French will then follow our example, and cut off the head of the woman who inappropriately spoke of the economic pressures of giving head.

  7. David Neil

    "displaying contempt towards a public servant"

    If that's a crime, bang me up, I would ask that approx 650 similar charges are taken into consideration

    1. TeeCee Gold badge
      Coat

      650 similar charges?

      Is that because you reckon that around half of the mob in the Palace of Westminster are actually OK, or did you just forget about the Lords?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Nail em up I say!

    Well that was proportionate huh?

  9. MinionZero
    WTF?

    @"displaying contempt towards a public servant"

    Well we are all fucked then!

    What so now they have to pretend they like their own set of greedy power hungry two faced bastards! ... like hell I will.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    displaying contempt towards a public servant

    Hold up, so in France you're not free to display contempt to whomever you like?

    That's a bit, well, unfair.

  11. Neil 23

    But, but, but...

    Surely contempt is the default state when dealing with politicians?

  12. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Unhappy

    "Displaying contempt towards a public servant"

    ...is a time-honored and entirely justifiable activity, especially in France. Especially towards the rather confused Miss Dati.

    I suppose the Lyons Coppers have retained some German Instincts grafted-on during WWII?

  13. Joe User

    Wait a minute...

    Following 48 hours in custody, he faces a prison sentence of up to a month and a fine of up to €10,000 on charges of "displaying contempt towards a public servant".

    They just made up that "offense". If that was really against the law, half the country's population would be in jail.

    1. Asgard

      Give them more time and it will be more like that :(

      @"If that was really against the law, half the country's population would be in jail."

      Or far more likely, put under continuous automated watch by their Police State and labelled as a political trouble maker. If some of the people in power had their way, that's exactly the kind of power they would like to have (and soon will have), so they could force people to do what they say. This case shows the attitude of the people in power, how we the serfs have to hold them in high esteem, otherwise they want to whip us into line for our disrespect of them.

      With such an arrogant attitude like that being used to subjugate the French so badly, I guess we won't have to wait many more years before we get to see the next French revolution against their ruling classes. These arrogant people in power never learn. But then learning would require empathy and these arrogant people don't have empathy to see how badly they are treating others. Which is also why things are getting progressively worse for all of us.

      Shocking now that speaking disrespectfully and making fun of a politician out there now gets you arrested, home raided, 48 hours in custody, plus the chance of a prison sentence of up to a month and a fine of up to €10,000 on charges of "displaying contempt towards a public servant". That kind of behaviour sounds like France before the revolution, over 200 years ago! :(

      1. Sir Runcible Spoon
        Thumb Up

        Sir

        @Asgard

        I don't know if it's just me, but every time I read the word 'person' in your post, I was mentally substituting the word 'bastard' in it's place.

  14. justanotheruser
    WTF?

    "displaying contempt towards a public servant"

    Well if that's all it takes to end up in jail then Britain's streets should be pretty empty soon...

  15. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Strange

    > "displaying contempt towards a public servant

    Don't the French people do this all the time?

    They are not known for keeping their feelings to themselves.

  16. Gary Turner

    Huh?

    "he faces a prison sentence of up to a month and a fine of up to €10,000 on charges of 'displaying contempt towards a public servant'."

    There's a law against that? I'd consider that a gods-given right. No, not a right, an obligation.

  17. Roger Stenning
    Coat

    Hmm... "Liberté", eh?

    Intéressant ...

    So, "displaying contempt towards a public servant" is a crime in France, eh? So much for the vaunted «La vie, la liberté et l'égalité» that apparently initiated the guarantee of free speech..!

    What, they lose their sense of humour, along with their noses from all that dodgy smelly cheese?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      well...

      ...They already tell you what you're allowed to wear. It's freedom, France-style - you'd better be free, or else!

  18. sparx104
    Grenade

    "displaying contempt towards a public servant"?

    Christ, if they bought that charge in over here they'd solve the deficit in days with the fines.

    Does anyone here *not* have contempt for their public "servants" (they don't seem to have the "servant" part down...)

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    "displaying contempt towards a public servant"

    Bloody hell, lucky we don't have that in the UK - we would all be in jail.

  20. Yossarian
    WTF?

    "displaying contempt towards a public servant"

    Surely we are all guilty of that one!!!

  21. Darryl

    "displaying contempt towards a public servant"

    Wow. Is "displaying contempt towards a public servant" an offense anywhere else? You'd think the jails of the world would be overflowing.

  22. Blubster
    Happy

    "displaying contempt towards a public servant".

    Public servants? I have nothing but utter contempt for the lot of 'em.

    It's a good job they don't have that sort of charge over here - half of blighty would be banged up in clink being forced to do favours for Mr. Big who's in with the warders.

  23. Robert Moore
    WTF?

    "displaying contempt towards a public servant"

    If that is a crime, I will never set foot in France.

    I personally hold the members of my government in utter contempt.

  24. jake Silver badge

    "displaying contempt towards a public servant".

    So basically, in France, anyone with a working central nervous system is in danger of being jailed & fined? I mean, do YOU know anyone with a brain that isn't in total, complete and utter contempt of their so-called "public servants"?

  25. This post has been deleted by its author

  26. Jellied Eel Silver badge

    displaying contempt towards a public servant?

    Uh oh. I hope our lot don't get any funny ideas about introducing this law here.

  27. LaeMing
    FAIL

    That's a bit stiff!

    Sense of humor fail, me thinks. And touching a raw nerve.

    He probably should have used a public forum rather than a private email, though. The communication channel CAN make the difference between sexual harassment and a good joke referring to sex.

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "displaying contempt towards a public servant"

    That's a crime? I thought it was a sport.

    /Sarcasm off

    But seriously, the article seems to imply that she's not currently holding office... so how can this still be a crime?

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "displaying contempt towards a public servant"

    F@@k me - if we had this law here, the police and the courts would be jam packed dealing with MPs shameful pants down fun and expenses c@ck ups!

  30. splaw
    Headmaster

    maybe i'm doing something wrong...

    Sorry but we yanks aren't all up on our French. Maybe someone from the continent could assist with what that little slip would sound like? I tried some on line tools and couldn't get that word translated...

  31. Notas Badoff

    arKane law, surely

    ...on charges of "displaying contempt towards a public servant".

    But the first line of the article says it was a politician. Politicians are not public servants. Easy out is a shoe in, yes?

  32. Patrick R
    Troll

    Student joke ?

    Oh merde, the guy is 40. Never too late to face reality. I'd have found it half funny if he'd been half that age. +Rachida is quite good looking indeed but not exactly "glamorous".

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    "displaying contempt towards a public servant"

    Yeah, but if the boot was on the other foot it's a safe bet that Dati (and her kind) would get off with no fine and maybe a mild warning....

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    "displaying contempt towards a public servant"

    ...would cover many of the news reporters here in the US.

    May we please export some of our women pols to France, where they can finally get some respect, notably:

    Sarah Palin, former Gov. of Alaska, and former 2008 VP candidate on the Republican ticket - quit the office as Governor of Alaska for better pay on the chicken dinner circuit, and Fox noise - effectively destroying any future political career. She has no chance even being elected dog-catcher now.

    Michelle Bachman, Republican House Rep. from Minnesota's 6th district - famous for actively encouraging her constituents to refuse to fill out the 2010 US census forms, at least until some folks pointed out that if Minnesotans allowed themselves to be under-counted in the US census, Michelle's 6th district would be the one absorbed into neighboring districts, and the district and her House seat would simply disappear.

    Christine O'Donnell - Republican candidate for US Senate from Delaware - No College degree in evidence, but long steeped in socially conservative fundamentalist Christian doctrine, believes that condom use actually promotes the spread of STD's, and that abstinence is the only acceptable form of teenage birth control (as if teenagers somehow weren't wont to make like the bunnies).

    We have many more thoroughly batshit pols of both sexes available for export, but these are the cream of the crop, and for obvious reasons are the first ones we'd love to part with. FIRE SALE accommodations are in effect! Do not wait! Frenchmen, these deals will only be available for a limited time!

    OTOH, Hillary Clinton would have ack'd her faux pas, and simply ignored that sort of suggestive missive, and if asked about it publicly, would have dismissed it for the nonsense it was.

    Sorry Dati, you get meh! from this side of the pond. Grow a thicker skin, you're a pol, you're supposed to have a very thick layer of that stuff anyway. if you don't, you don't belong that business. The last thing this world needs is more pols with victim or persecution complexes.

  35. Hashem

    Public SERVANTS?

    To all the people out there saying that if that were a law in the UK the streets would be empty...

    Before we can show contempt towards public servants, we must first have public servants.

    I don't remember when any politician actually served the public as opposed to their own interests.

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    With all due respect...

    Just prefix any communication to a public servant with the above phrase. If a negative amount of respect is due, that can only be due to the actions of that servant or his/her service.

  37. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    E-mails not e-mail

    According to Ms Dati's blog she only filed a complaint against the guy after he sent her many (number not specified) and insistent e-mails asking for an 'inflation'.

    In her blog Ms Dati also wrote the humour wore off quickly and that she feared for herself and her daughter's safety.

    Still the local plods come over as being a bit heavy handed.

    Don't worry, being irreverent and scornful towards politicians and civil servants is a very old and popular pastime in France. Just take a look at Le Canard Enchainé or Charlie Hebdo for instance.

  38. Mystic Megabyte

    Alor!

    <peter sellers> ah wish 'er 'apenis every day ov 'er life </peter sellers>

  39. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Displaying contempt

    Not to sure I agree with many of the posts here. You get what you invite.

    Some politicians and public servants are genuinely contemptible little shits (CLS). Some endeavor, in spite of the CLS dragging them down, to do the best job they can.

    I would not defend this particular elected(?) politician if she is involved in rumor mungering, even against that CLS Sarkozy, but the bloke was really a bit pathetic and probably deserves appropriate punishment.

    If we treat our public servants (elected or not) with contempt then do not be surprised of the there are more and more CLS because they just don't care what we think about them and their self interested spending of our increased taxes.

    And no, I'm not a politician or public servant but I do want my taxes spent wisely..... I can't believe I just wrote that!

    1. Ted Treen
      WTF?

      What?????

      "....I do want my taxes spent wisely....."

      Do you still believe in the Tooth Fairy, too?

  40. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    And she'll get?

    From the end of the article, it implies that Dati herself is responsible for rumours about the president and his wife having affairs? So what punishment will she receive for that contempt towards public servants?

    Actually, this is France... that's probably a badge of honour ;)

  41. Zero Sum
    Thumb Down

    This is France – not Russia???

    "Displaying contempt towards a public servant"...

    I thought such laws were only possible here in Russia or other authoritarian regimes.

    Shocking to find out that a normal democratic country such as France has such backward rules in its books.

  42. Flugal

    Abuse

    What a hideous abuse of power.

    Glad we wouldn't put up with it in Blighty.

    ...First time I've felt even vaguely patriotic in years!

  43. gerryg
    Boffin

    swallowed a syllable

    This story misses out the original gaffe by Dati. Apparently on television during an interview on the economy she confused fellatio with inflation.

    How so, you might wonder? I speculate, however in french it's fellation which if prefixed with "in" would be a homophone for inflation.

    So the right word was on the tip of her tongue.

    She might consider swallowing her pride as he probably wasn't trying to rub her up the wrong way but was merely a punning llnguist

  44. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    This is a crime?

    "Displaying contempt towards a public servant" is a crime?!?

    So this happened in Lyon, Iran?

  45. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Displaying contempt towards a public servant...

    ...is an offense? I thought it was merely a national pastime!

  46. JMB

    MB

    ""displaying contempt towards a public servant". #

    Posted Friday 29th October 2010 22:53 GMT

    Unhappy

    Shit, I hope that's not a crime here in Blighty!"

    Careful, you could find two plod at your door with a European Arrest Warrant. No defence against them, you can be sent for trial in the issuing country however dodgy their legal system is as many British people have found out.

  47. This post has been deleted by its author

  48. cognominal

    cognominal@gmail.com

    The charge "displaying contempt towards a public servant" is erroneous, even if she cumulates electoral mandates (european deputy and mayor of a Paris arrondissement) she is not technically a public servant as explained by a French legist (http://www.maitre-eolas.fr/post/2010/10/29/Pourquoi-je-veux-un-habeas-corpus-en-France).

    No habeas corpus, no defense lawyer during the "garde à vue", here fallacious charge against the accused, cumulative mandates of politics, political woman more present on people magazine than in her charges. France is fast becoming a banana republic.

  49. Craig 28
    Stop

    I wonder

    Perhaps "Showing contempt" is a case of something being lost in translation? Someone earlier mentioned the emails were repeated and insistent, so possibly the real meaning of the law is what we would call "harassment of a public servant."

    Harassment of anyone is bad. One email would have been funny, if in an inappropriate medium. More than one is simply harassing the woman. Now if they were written as fake emails/letters in a publicly viewable form, that would be good humour. The woman deserves some ridicule for the slip, noone deserves being harassed if she was indeed harassed in the way mentioned previously.

  50. Alistair

    contemptuous toward "public servants"

    Well -- that's certainly an attempt to make everyone guilty simply out of habit.

    Oh--- wait

    She's a politician.

    "public servant"

    I suppose it would depend on what is defined as servant

    But I suspect fellow will walk when they drop the charges. I cant recall the last time a politician actually provided "service" to the public.

  51. heyrick Silver badge

    Bizarre French law

    Don't these cretinous people watch the Guignols? Don't they read Le Sarkophage? Merde alors, the public outpouring of contempt is pretty much a part of their job description.

    I don't, personally, believe this law is in widespread use - after WW2, a disturbing number of the older generation are quite happy to give the arm of honour to a passing gendarme, to their faces!). I bet there's a fair few people who would have very unpleasant things to say about the current guys in power. I think it was probably about the only real thing she could pin on this twit. And as for all the recent protests and strikes,

    [posting from La Belle France, by the way, mais il est beaucoup moins belle avec le brouillard et le pluie... meh!]

  52. Catroast
    WTF?

    Sooo...

    Can we lock up and fine France for showing contempt to the rest of the world?

  53. Winkypop Silver badge
    Coat

    Dati

    What a dati old man this guy is.

  54. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Same here!

    OMG!!! 100 comments on the same thing. Obviously something is lost in translation! Try sending a mail to your female MP asking her to suck your **** and see if that is legal here. It might not be called "contempt of public servant" but it's still illegal.

  55. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Andy S

    I suggest that the problem is not so much the fact that someone can be arrested for sending offensive communications as much as that the specific law refers simply to "contempt of a public servant" which is both a very wide brush and patently absurd, as well as diminishing the legally perceived seriousness of a creepy weirdo pesterring a woman for oral sex.

    In short - it is not the offense that is the problem, it is the absurdity of the existance and use of the specific law under which it is deemed an offense.

  56. mhenriday
    Thumb Down

    Considered posting as an Anonymous Coward,

    but since so many others have confessed to the same «crime», I decided to post in my own name in the hope that I shall have made it to a better world before the authorities come knocking at/breaking down my door. But perhaps we should all reflect over why we allow ourselves to be manipulated into electing such contemptible persons to feed at the public/lobbyist trough - case in point the mid-term elections in that bastion of liberty, the United States, tomorrow....

    Henri

  57. jgb
    Thumb Up

    Don't be complacent about UK!!

    Be careful in your complacency about our wondrous 'freedoms' here in UK!

    A LOT of people were apparently Asleep at the Switch when the RIP Act was passed here. It came as no surprise to me when Local Authorities started using it to investigate people cheating on school allocations for their kids!

    It's quite easy to envisage a scenario where a draconian piece of anti-Freedom-of-Speech legislation got slipped through (AGAIN without any effective public protest) and then RIPA used in 'fishing expeditions' to find newly-illegal emails or whatever.

  58. JMcL

    Contempt towards public servants

    I'm full of contempt for Sarko, but then so is every French person I know. Does this mean I'm going to get locked up next time I'm through Charles de Gaulle?

  59. Chris Hunt

    Last time I was in France...

    ...they displayed contempt to EVERYBODY. How come "public servants" get a let-off?

  60. Chris Hunt
    Coat

    Latest News

    The unnamed Frenchman has had to be released.

    Apparently La Dati filled in his charge sheet herself and, in an unfortunate slip of the pen, accused him of "contempt towards pubic servants".

    j'obtiendrai mon manteau

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