Twelve environmental activists challenged their conviction before the highest judicial body in France, arguing that it violated freedom of expression.
Le Monde with afp
The Court of Cassation validated, Wednesday, May 18, the convictions of environmental activists “dropout” of official portraits of Emmanuel Macron in town halls to denounce “the inaction” of the president in terms of climate. They immediately announced their intention to bring the case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECDH).
The twelve activists had stolen, in 2019, with an discovered face and without violence of the presidential portraits in three Parisian town halls, as well as in Valence and Strasbourg, as part of a national campaign, won Macron, led by the Non-violent action movement COP21 (ANV-COP21). They had been sentenced on appeal to fines of fines ranging from 200 to 500 euros, for some suspended, notably for “flight in meeting”.
They disputed these convictions before the highest judicial body in France, arguing that they violated freedom of expression, law guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights.
“Proported character of the conviction “
But the magistrates of the criminal chamber of the court – who had, in September, in another case of dropping out of a conviction affirming that nothing can justify a theft – estimated that, in these new cases, the courts of ‘Call had “verified [É] the proportionate nature of the conviction”, justified their decisions and adapted the sentences according to the context.
The Court of Cassation, which judges the law and not the substance of the business, notes being thus “able to ensure that, although the action carried out by the defendants has been part of the framework of an approach activist and can be considered an expression (…), the conviction was not disproportionate with regard to the symbolic value of the portrait of the President of the Republic and the refusal to restore it, as long as their demands are not satisfied, as well as of the circumstance that the flight was committed in a meeting “.
By setting a framework, these decisions “constitute an advance,” said M e Paul Mathonnet, one of the lawyers for “dropouts”, regretting that “the balance is not Not where we wanted it. ” “Adopting these three criteria of symbolic value, refusal of restitution and action in meeting is a way of not recognizing this political expression”, refusals “that we will contest before the [ECHR]”, he continued.
“It is a disappointment, the court demonstrates its total incomprehension of our actions, but we remain determined”, for her part, says Cécile Marchand, “dropping out” in Paris. “Collective action is essential, the political message is completely associated with the symbol and irreversibility [the non-return of portraits] is part of the message,” she added.