The acquittal of the seventeen Sciences Po Grenoble students, who were still being prosecuted for having implicated two professors in 2021, accused of Islamophobia, is confirmed. Judging that his words “did not exceed the limits of freedom of expression [des étudiants] » As defined in the education code, the administrative court of Clermont-Ferrand, in a decision of November 21, validated the conclusions adopted unanimously three years earlier by the disciplinary committee of the University of Clermont-Auvergne. The matter had turned out to be confusing.
The rector of the academic region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Olivier Dugrip, asked the administrative court to annul the decision of the disciplinary committee of November 19, 2021, considering that it was “contaminated by errors of fact and valuation”. Dugrip thus presented three emails addressed to the management of the Institute of Political Studies (IEP) and two other messages that were publicly disseminated through the social networks of the Union Union, the majority organization to which the seventeen persecuted students belonged.
In an email dated January 9, 2021, the Union’s elected representatives had asked IEP Director Sabine Saurugger to “govern” about the case of one of the two professors, Klaus Kinzler, who opposed the recognition of the place of the word “Islamophobia” in the title of a lecture. They expected the director to take “measures to combat Islamophobia in the establishment”. On social media, the union went further and demanded “that concrete actions be taken”in particular the suppression of the course on Islam taught by the second professor in question, Vincent Tournier. Finally, on February 22, for a “call for testimonies” Posted on Facebook, the Union invited students to anonymously report Islamophobic comments that may have been made in this course.
There is no damage to the school’s reputation.
The names of these teachers were plastered on the walls of the institute on March 4, 2021, along with this phrase: “Fascists in our classrooms. Islamophobia kills. » The police investigation was unable to identify the authors of these collages.
For the administrative judge, “In terms of the tone and terms used, these messages did not exceed the limits of freedom of expression. [des étudiants] in relation to the operation of this public service”. Finally, these messages sent by a union organization were not “of a nature that undermines good order, good functioning or reputation” from Sciences Po Grenoble.
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