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Bob Dylan racism case dropped by French court

By | Published on Thursday 17 April 2014

Bob Dylan

French prosecutors have dropped a case brought against Bob Dylan by the French Council Of Croats last year, which accused the singer songwriter of making a racial slur in an interview with Rolling Stone via a comment about the conflicts that occurred in the former Yugoslavia.

As previously reported, asked what effect Civil War-era America and the slave trade still had on the US today, Dylan commented: “If you got a slave master or Klan in your blood, blacks can sense that. That stuff lingers to this day. Just like Jews can sense Nazi blood and the Serbs can sense Croatian blood”.

At the time, Vlatko Mari, Secretary General of the French Council Of Croats, said of the remark: “It is an incitement to hatred. You cannot compare Croatian criminals to all Croats”.

But now, according to The Wall Street Journal, the charges have been dropped following a court inquiry. Amongst other things jurisdiction played a part in that decision, with magistrate Marion Potier saying that she had found that the interview had been conducted by the US edition of Rolling Stone, and the singer had not given clearance for his comments to be published in the French version.

Dylan’s lawyer Thierry Marembert, told WSJ: “I am very happy to see that French justice understood that Bob Dylan never wanted to insult anyone”.



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