Drey ‧ fus, Al ‧ fred /ˈdreɪfəs, ˈælfrəd/ BrE AmE
(1859–1935) a French army officer who was put in prison in 1894 for selling military secrets to the Germans. It was soon discovered that he was not guilty, and many French writers and politicians protested about him being in prison, especially the writer Emile ↑ Zola , who wrote a famous newspaper article with the title ‘J'accuse!’ (=I accuse). But the army and many newspapers persuaded the government to keep him in prison because they had an unreasonable dislike of him because he was Jewish. He was eventually let out of prison and officially judged to be not guilty. These events became known as the Dreyfus Affair.