Seven people were due to stand trial in Paris on Wednesday on charges of making death threats and cyberbullying against director Thomas Jolly in the wake of his controversial Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony last July.
French media reported that six men, aged between 22 and 79 years old, and a woman aged 57 had been summoned to court on charges of “repeated death threats, cyberbullying and aggravated insults based on sexual orientation and real or supposed religious affiliation.”
A number of the insults were reported at the time to have been antisemitic in nature. Jolly is not Jewish.
The accused face maximum jail terms of seven years and fines of up to €75,000 ($80,000), if found guilty.
The Paris criminal court hearing comes seven-and-half months after theater director Jolly’s July 26 Olympics opening ceremony on the River Seine caused furore in some quarters for its modern, inclusive take on French history and culture.
Jolly filed a police complaint on July 31 saying he had been the target of death threats, insults and defamation.
He came under particular attack for a controversial scene entitled “festivity” featuring drag queens sitting around a table.
There was speculation that the scene was inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic painting The Last Supper, depicting Jesus’s last meal with the 12 apostles, which in turn sparked claims that the tableau was an insult to the Christian faith.
Then U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump even waded in calling the opening ceremony “a disgrace”.
Jolly explained that the scene was inspired by Greek mythology rather than The Last Supper but this did little to quell the public attacks and social media threats and insults.
French DJ and lesbian activist Barbara Butch, who participated in the drag queen tableau, also lodged a police complaint.
She said she had been subjected to a campaign of cyber-harassment which included death, torture, and rape threats as well as anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist and grossophobic insults.
Jolly suggested at the time of his complaint that many of the posts seemed to be from people based outside of France, however, the seven people due to stand trial on Wednesday hail from the French departments of Alpes-Maritimes and l’Hérault.
The accused were arrested after an investigation by France’s Central Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity and Hate Crimes (OCLCH).
French media reported at the end of last year that another three men were due to stand trial on September 25, 2005, in relation to the Barbara Butch police complaint for messages posted on Instagram between July 26 and 30.
