The man arrested for slapping the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, this week, was sentenced this Thursday to 18 months in jail, of which he will spend at least four behind bars, despite the fact that the president had decided not to file any complaint. for these facts.
Damien Tarel, 28, was detained immediately after he assaulted Macron on camera during an election event on Tuesday in Drome province. This Thursday, he has responded to the Justice for “violence without incapacity on the person depositary of public authority,” according to the Prosecutor’s Office.
The Public Ministry requested against him a sentence of one year and six months in jail and this has been the case, although this sentence includes nuances, since most of them will be able to serve it in freedom, with certain conditions that will be in force for two years. However, according to BFMTV, Tarel will immediately go to prison.
Likewise, he will not be able to carry arms in the next five years nor will he be able to exercise his right to vote or aspire to public office for a period of three years, which means also partially admitting the requests of the Public Ministry in this regard. For the prosecutor, it is a “totally inadmissible” act on the part of the accused.
Macron, who has not changed his agenda after the attack, has called for “relativizing” without “trivializing” what happened. In this sense, he has labeled the act itself “stupid” and “violent”, but in a televised interview he has tried to focus on other aspects of French political life, for example on the progressive return to normality after the pandemic.
The president did not file a complaint against his aggressor, something that this Thursday has justified by assuring that Justice took over the case “immediately” and that it was better for it to “continue its course” and without him personally intervening.