After French Army officer Alfred Dreyfuss was found guilty of espionage, novelist Ãmile Zola wrote an open letter to French president Felix Faure that was published on the front page of L'Aurore on January 13, 1898. In it he claimed that the hierarchy of the Army was anti-Semitic and that the officers had railroaded Dreyfuss because he was Jewish. The governmentâs response was to prosecute Zola for libel. To escape punishment, he fled to England in February, only to return in June. By then, public opinion had turned in favor of the disgraced Dreyfuss. In a second trial, he was again found guilty. But was finally exonerated.