Five climate activists who had dropped portraits of the President of the Republic in three municipalities of the Gers in 2019, relaxed by the Auch Court on behalf of “freedom of expression”, were sentenced on appeal on Thursday 3 February by the Court of Agen, but dispensed with difficulty.
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Thursday, February 3, the Court of Appeal held that the five militants of the climate Gersois who had dropped between June and July 2019, the portraits of Emmanuel Macron, in three rural town halls of the department (Barran, Saint John -The-Comtal and Castelnau-Barbarens) were guilty, but dispensed them. Operation Pacific Commando conducted as part of an action by the ANV-COP21 (non-violent action-COP21) had earned their authors to be prosecuted for “flight to meeting and complicity of flight to meeting”.
The deliberation of the Court of Appeal was all the more expected that in first instance, the five activists had been relaxed by the Auch Correctional Court on 27 October 2020, in the name of freedom of expression. . The auscitan magistrates had then felt that “all the conditions were required” for “the argument of freedom of expression neutralizes the prosecution of theft”. “This is a question of general interest, the debate is serious since the frameworks have been dropped in order to present them to G7, the criminal behavior has not been preceded by violence or degradation and the penalty. Criminal was disproportionate to acts, “said the judges. At the hearing of October 13, 2020, the Defense had also mentioned Christophe Cassou, climatologist of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as well as the Geneviève Azam economist, who came to plead reality of the climate emergency, but also the lack of commitment of political leaders to deal with it.
A cold shower for activists
At the end of this relaxed, the Wers’ prosecutor had immediately appealed this unprecedented decision. While the Auch magistrates had dismissed the “lack of flight” or “the state of necessity” also advanced by the defense, this relaxed on behalf of “freedom of expression” was indeed a first in France. The judgment had aroused many hopes among the “droppings of portraits”, these climate activists grouped in the territory under the banner ANV-COP21, while many prosecutions had been initiated at different points of the territory for reasons for “policyholders. “Similar” presidential portraits
In this context, the deliberation of the Agen Court of Appeal has made the effect of a cold shower for activists and their advice. Even as four other authors of “stalls”, June 26, 2019 in Grateloup-Saint-Gayrand and Montpezat (Lot-et-Garonne), all saw the same Thursday 3 February their sentence confirmed by the Court of Appeal D Agen, with fines ranging from 100 to 200 euros, two of them being halved in their quantum. One of them, who had appealed two conviction decisions for refusing to submit to a biological levy, also saw his sentence confirmed (100 euros fine).
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