Brigitte Bardot on Trial for Inciting Racial Hatred

French actress and fierce animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot is on trial this week, accused of inciting racial hatred in her native France. Incidentally, France - along with most of the other European countries - has very strict anti-racism laws, therefore Bardot's angry anti-Muslim remarks didn't go down very well with the French justice system. It didn't help that Bardot had already been fined on four separate previous occasions for the same reasons, namely inciting racial or religious discrimination and hatred. As a result, Anne de Fontette, the prosecutor dealing with the case is asking for a two-year suspended prison sentence for the actress, plus a fine of 15,000 euros (approximately $24,000), stating that "I am a little tired of prosecuting Ms Bardot".

Brigitte Bardot is currently on trial due to the fact that in 2004, she wrote a rather angry and offensive letter addressed to Nicolas Sarkozy, who was then the French Interior Minister, and in which she was complaining about the Muslim festival Eid-al-Kabir, which traditionally requires for a sheep to be slaughtered. The letter was also made public in a quarterly journal that belongs to the actress' animal-welfare foundation. In her letter, she claimed "I am fed up with being under the thumb of this population which is destroying us, destroying our country and imposing its acts". As a result, she was sued by an activist group called "Movement Against Racism and for Friendship between Peoples" (better known as MRAP).

Previous to this particular situation, Bardot had publicly complained about what she deemed "the Islamisation of France", claiming that the country was being overrun by "sheep-slaughtering Muslims". Prosecutor Anne de Fontette also pointed out that "she might as well write that Arabs should be thrown out of France. It is time to hand out heftier sentences". Bardot's lawyer, however, stated that her offensive comments stemmed from her intense animal rights campaigning. "You see racism and xenophobia, but I only see the expression of her fight," he said. A lawyer representing the French human rights league acknowledged that Bardot's status as renowned actress and animal welfare campaigner does not entitle her to "any special rights" to be racist. The verdict is due on June, 3rd.