Sarkozy 'get lost' heckler loses case

MAN SAYS HE WILL TAKE FIGHT TO THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS TO QUASH A €30 FINE FOR 'OFFENDING THE HEAD OF STATE' A FORMER Socialist politican who was fined €30 for telling

Nicolas Sarkozy to "get lost" has had his appeal thrown out by France's highest court. Hervé Eon, 57, was hit with the penalty for "offending the head of state"

during Sarkozy's visit to Laval in the Mayenne in August 2008. He had greeted the president with a large sign with the message: "Casse-toi pov'con" - which has a wide

range of translations starting from the relatively mild "get lost you sad git". The words were the same as those used by Sarkozy earlier that year when he lost his temper with a

farmer during a visit to the Salon de l'Agriculture in Paris. A video clip of the president's outburst was picked up by news media around the world and caused outrage among

politicans. Eon's fine has now been upheld by France's _cour de cassation_, which said it had no reason to believe that the law had been wrongly applied in earlier rulings.

Although Eon has exhausted all of his chances to appeal in France, he said he now felt obliged to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights. His lawyer, Dominique Noguères, said

outside court: "I was more or less expecting that outcome. We are not going to leave things here. This is not about the sum of €30, but a matter of principle." Photo:Medef