Two men in France were convicted on Wednesday of aggravated violence in a case that followed the death of Raphaël Graven, an internet personality. Mr. Graven died last year during a live broadcast on the platform Kick, where fellow live streamers routinely subjected him to humiliation and abuse.
The men were not accused of causing Mr. Graven’s death, but they controlled the channel whose stream he was present on when he died. The case provoked an intense debate in France about the government’s role in regulating parts of the internet where harassment and violence can go unchecked.
In a criminal court in Nice, the two men, Owen Cenazandotti and Safine Hamadi, both in their 20s, were also convicted of incitement to hatred and violence online, according to a statement on Thursday from Maud Marty, a public prosecutor.
Mr. Cenazandotti, who streams using the name Naruto, received a 12-month suspended prison term and a fine of 15,000 euros (around $17,000), according to his lawyer, Fabien Carles. Mr. Hamadi received an 18-month suspended prison term and a fine of 5,000 euros (roughly $5,800), Mr. Carles said.
The court also banned both men from posting on Kick for six months, Mr. Carles said.
Mr. Carles assailed the conviction of his client, calling the sentences “disproportionate.” He said Mr. Graven had not been abused by the two men and that his death was not linked to the behavior on the channel.
“The reality is far less sensational,” he wrote in an email. “These were young friends who received money in exchange for challenges — not all of which were in good taste — but which didn’t lead to Mr. Graven’s death.”
Mr. Graven, known online as Jean Pormanove, was found dead in Contes, a village north of Nice, in August 2025. During broadcasts on Kick, other streamers would regularly subject the 46-year-old to acts of violence and verbal humiliation. The content was watched by thousands of viewers, according to Le Parisien, a French newspaper.
In December 2024, an investigation was opened after Mediapart, a French investigative journalism site, published an article documenting how a group of streamers, including Mr. Cenazandotti and Mr. Hamadi, was engaging in abuse and humiliation on Kick to attract donations from viewers. At the time, Mr. Graven was interviewed by the police, and told them that the content was staged to “create buzz” and make money. He also denied being a victim of violence.
He told the police that he made up to 6,000 euros (nearly $7,000) per month, and said he had never been injured and was free to make his own decisions. At the time of his death, Mr. Graven, who began his online career streaming while playing the game “Fortnite,” had more than 500,000 followers on Kick, a platform founded in Australia in 2022.
Le Parisien reported that a live-streamed video on Aug. 18, since removed from Kick, showed Mr. Graven lying lifeless on a mattress covered with a duvet. Le Monde, another French newspaper, reported that the livestream during which Mr. Graven died had been running for nearly 300 hours, and that other streamers cut the broadcast after they noticed that Mr. Graven was not responsive.
An autopsy found that Mr. Graven’s death was “non-traumatic in origin” and involved “no third-party intervention,” prosecutors said in a news release earlier this year.
In January, Mr. Cenazandotti and Mr. Hamadi were arrested and charged in connection with the case.
Kick said in a statement on Thursday that it was not a party to the proceedings and had no comment on the outcome.
“The ruling relates solely to two individual content creators,” the company said.
Mr. Carles, the lawyer for Mr. Cenazandotti, said that while he considered the sentence to be “unjust,” he said his client had accepted it in order to avoid the risk of a harsher penalty on appeal.
Mr. Cenazandotti, he said, planned to continue his livestreams in the future using a different format.
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