29/09/2023, 12:35 SANCHEZ v. FRANCE - 45581/15 (Judgment : No Article 10 - Freedom of expression-{general} : Grand Chamber) [2023] ECHR 418 (1… There appeared before the Court: (a) for the Government Mr T. Stehelin , Agent; Mr B. Chamouard, Agent; Mr J.-B. Desprez, Ms M. Blanchard, Ms P. Reparaz, Ms A. Roux, Advisers. coco- (b) for the applicant Mr D. Dassa-Le-Deist, Mr S. Josserand, Counsel. The Court heard addresses by Mr Stehelin, Mr Dassa-Le Deist and Mr Josserand, and also their replies to questions from judges. INTRODUCTION 11. The application concerns, with regard to Article 10 of the Convention, the criminal conviction of the applicant, at the time a local councillor who was standing for election to Parliament, for the offence of incitement to hatred or violence against a group or an individual on grounds of religion, following his failure to take prompt action to delete comments posted by third parties on the “wall” of his Facebook account. THE FACTS THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE 12. The applicant was born in 1983 and lives in Beaucaire. 13. He has been the mayor of Beaucaire since 2014 and chairs the group of the Rassemblement national (a political party known as Front national (FN) until 2018) in the Regional Council of Occitanie. The website of Beaucaire town hall contains a page presenting the applicant on which it is also stated that in his “professional life” he was responsible for the “FN’s Internet strategy ... for 7 years”. At the time of the events at issue he was the Front national candidate for the Nîmes constituency in https://www.bailii.org/eu/cases/ECHR/2023/418.html 9/100