A young Internet user was sentenced on Friday June 2 in Paris to eight months in prison, including six months suspended on probation, for having harassed the singer Hoshi online, targeted by a campaign of hateful and homophobic messages after having kissed on stage a dancer in 2020. Maël H., 21, was neither present nor represented by a lawyer at the hearing. The defendant was also ordered to pay 5,000 euros in damages to the 26-year-old singer, Mathilde Gerner, whose real name is.
The criminal court found him guilty of online moral harassment, aggravated by the fact that it was committed because of the sexual orientation of the victim, an offense which made him incur six years of imprisonment. The judges went beyond the requisitions of the prosecution, which had requested earlier in the day a sentence of six months' imprisonment fully accompanied by a simple reprieve.
The artist also did not attend the trial, explaining in a letter read by her lawyer that she had "not the strength" and did not "want to return to this bubble of anguish". created by "the thousands" of stalkers "hiding behind aliases".
The harassment "in a pack" of which she was the victim had started more than three years ago and had caused a major impact, evaluated at 21 days of total incapacity for work (ITT), according to the singer's lawyer, Laura Ben Kemoun.
Repeated, hateful and homophobic messages
On February 14, 2020, when she was nominated for the Victoires de la Musique, Hoshi kissed a dancer on stage after performing her title "Censorship Love", which denounces homophobia. Maël H. had been identified as one of the authors of repeated, hateful and homophobic messages addressed to the singer after this militant gesture.
Five other people, minors, were also identified during the investigations carried out by the national center for the fight against online hatred of the Paris public prosecutor's office, which divested them.
During his hearings by the investigators, Maël H. had admitted having sent Hoshi a series of messages calling her "fat sow", "dirty dyke" or "dirty lesbian", and having created several accounts on social networks as soon as one was blocked.
He felt that he did not write anything "defamatory" or threatening, referring to "lip service" or "unfriendly messages". He explained that he wanted to "let off steam" because he was "not (feeling) well" and was surprised that the investigators had "found him".
