French Lawyer Disbarred for Filing Motion Against Judge Because He Is Jewish
A lawyer from Lyon in eastern France has been disbarred for filing a motion to disqualify a Jewish judge because of his origins.
The French Bar Association disbarred Alexis Dubruel on Wednesday for citing the name of judge Albert Levy in a 2012 motion to disqualify him from presiding over a custody case in which one of the parents was called Moses. He attached the Wikipedia definitions of Moses and Levy to his motion.
Dubruel has appealed his disbarment and his attorney called the punishment “disproportionate,” Le Figaro reported Wednesday.
In his 2012 motion, Dubruel said Levy was “aggressive” toward his own client but cordial in his demeanor toward the man called Moses. Dubruel accused Levy of “miscarriage of justice” during a hearing before the criminal court in Lyon in June.
Levy has in the past been the subject of anti-Semitic insults, according to Le Figaro.
In a separate trial last week, a Paris criminal court sentenced the French blogger Boris Le Lay to eight months in prison and gave him a $670 fine for posting material that “incites discrimination, hatred and violence against Jews,” on websites he administers, according to French daily Le Telegramme.
Additionally, he is to pay $2,000 in damages to associations he had targeted, the court ruled. Also separately, prosecutors in Correze in southern France indicted a 40 year-old Norwegian heavy metal musician named Kristian Vikernes for inciting hatred and other charges linked to his alleged anti-Semitic and xenophobic blog posts.
The trial was set for June 2014, after his lawyer asked for more time to read documents and prepare his defense, the BBC reported on Thursday.
In Norway, Kristian is a well-known neo-Nazi and former associate of Anders Breivik, the Norwegian far-right militant who killed 77 people in attacks in Norway in 2011.
A message from our editor-in-chief Jodi Rudoren
![](https://forward.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Jodi-Headshot.jpg)
We're building on 127 years of independent journalism to help you develop deeper connections to what it means to be Jewish today.
With so much at stake for the Jewish people right now — war, rising antisemitism, a high-stakes U.S. presidential election — American Jews depend on the Forward's perspective, integrity and courage.
— Jodi Rudoren, Editor-in-Chief