Dam of Caussade: sponsors of illegal water restraint escape prison

The Court of Agen decided not to confirm, on appeal, the severity of the sanctions issued against Serge Bousquet-Cassagne and Patrick Franken in July 2020. The two men are sentenced to prison fines and sentences. .

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For an environmental offense, the condemnation, fallen in July 2020, was rarer: nine months in prison for the President of the Chamber of Agriculture of Lot-et-Garonne, Serge Bousquet-Cassagne, eight months farm For his vice-president, Patrick Franken. The two men had appealed; Thursday 13 January, they saw their sentences brought ten months with a probationary suspension of eighteen months and escape, for the time being, to the prison.

As decided at first instance, they will have to pay 7,000 euros of fine each and, in respect of the moral damage with respect to the complainants, 25,000 euros of reparation for France Nature Environnement (FNE) and For the Company for the study, protection and development of nature in the Southwest (Sepanso), as well as 15,000 euros for the National Association for the Protection of Waters and Rivers, Truities, Shadows, Salmon . They will also have to pay 32,900 euros to Fedis, including facilities were damaged during the Caussade shipyard.

The Court of Agen therefore chose not to confirm the severity of the sanctions in this case of illegal construction of a retaining of 920,000 cubic meters of water, or a work of an area of ​​20 hectares and of 12 meters deep. Mr. Bousquet-Cassagne immediately rejoiced this “camouflet for environmental associations”. “We knew that our country’s justice was not going to put us in prison for making a lake,” he congratulated at the exit of the hearing.

“The prison closes. justified “

“For the first time are imposed criminal convictions in an environmental infringement case, it is important that it be recognized, comments soberly Lionel Feuillas de FNE. Our concern, now, is whether The state will make its prefectural decree of formal notice of 2019, requiring the restoration of the site. “

The lawyer of associations, Alice Terrace, does not hide his disappointment. “This trial should have been held before a court specialized in environmental damage. Farm prison was justified with respect to two persons, elected, who have used their local political networks and who benefit from a complacent treatment. Does it. Their work, illegal, is currently exploited to the Su of all. This raises the absence of the state. “

The caussel dam, erected on a tributary of the river Tolzac, has become an explosive illustration of tensions around the water resource in some French agricultural areas. The decision of the Tribunal intervenes, while the current national reflection entitled “Varenne Agricultural Water and Climate Change” must result in decisions at the end of January on the supply of agricultural sectors. The representatives of the latter hope to obtain the assurance of being able to face the recurring droughts in better conditions, in particular by storing the water resource.

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/Media reports.