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Stéphane Plaza’s Appeal Hearing Opens in Paris

A multi-day hearing that could overturn his February 2025 conviction will also bring a previously closed cyberharassment complaint into the court record.

Overview

  • The appeal began on Friday, June 26, 2026 at the Paris Court of Appeal and is scheduled to run through July 1, 2026 to review the one-year suspended sentence handed down in February 2025.
  • The first-instance court found Plaza guilty of physical and psychological violence against one former partner for acts dated between 2018 and 2022, while it acquitted him on psychological violence allegations from a second complainant.
  • Judges will now consider material from a cyberharassment complaint that Plaza had filed and that was previously closed, a development the defence says is central to its challenge of the earlier verdict.
  • Defence lawyers have accused the Paris prosecutor’s office of procedural misconduct in the first trial, an allegation that remains disputed and will be raised during the appeal hearings.
  • Plaza’s conviction has already produced legal and commercial fallout: his M6 shows were deprogrammed, he paid a €3,000 fine for drug use in May 2025, and his franchise group was ordered to compensate an affiliate and allow agencies to rebrand because of reputational harm.