The Correctional Court of Bobigny judged, Thursday, “illegal” the procedure against nine Greenpeace activists.
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The hearing was long, this Thursday, November 4th at the Criminal Court of Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis). Las, the trial of the nine Greenpeace militants, accused of repting in green a Boeing 777-200 from the air France company, on the Tarmac at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport on March 5, turned Short.
After an hour barely from debate, the judge decided to cancel the current procedure, following the pleadings of the two defense lawyers, Mary dosed and Alexandre Faro, who had denounced the illegality “The retention of activists” and “the violation of their rights”. “It’s a victory not only about the procedure, but also on the merits. For it is one thing to want to criminalize activists, but it’s another to flout their rights,” said Marie dosed at the exit of The hearing.
If the procedure has been declared null, and the Tribunal refused to judge the case at the merits, the new Greenpeace activists are not free from any prosecution. The complaint lodged by Air France and ADP Group (former Paris airports), the two civil parties still runs. The two reasons for prosecution, “voluntarily degrading” an airplane and “disturbing the functioning of airport facilities in order to degrade an aircraft” remain. But from the moment the judge, Charles Moscaa, considered that the proceedings were tainted with illegality, as consequentially he felt not having been “regularly seized”, he now belongs to the Crown to restart the procedure. The defendants could therefore be reconvocated before the court to respond, on the merits, of their actions.
“There are other means”
The lawyers of the civil parties have begun to enter the debate on the nullity of the procedure. But Claudia Chemarin, the Air France Council, believes that the trial should take place, to promote “awareness of the risks that these activists take and the risks they make to others with such actions.” The airline that claims a euro of damages, having also been compensated for costs that the transaction cost them by insurance, wants the debate, “she says. “The climate is an important issue, but there are other ways that these hazardous actions, and Greenpeace has other possibilities for communicating.”
While waiting for a new judicial rendezvous, for one of the defendants, Eva Ferrero, 36, residing in Ardèche, satisfied “because the judge did not endorse the criminalization of activists”. “We have been so abused at the depot, it was” Midnight Express “, no water, toilets in such a state that you do everything for not going for 24 hours. After thirty hours of custody, ON is touched even if we are extremely determined. “
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