The environmental activists prosecuted for their actions committed in 2019 saw, Wednesday, May 18, their appeals rejected by the Court of Cassation.
by
The climate activists who had won the portraits of Emmanuel Macron in the town halls, to denounce “the emptiness of politics” of the Head of State were dismissed from their appeals against several courts of appeal. Wednesday, May 18, the criminal chamber of the Court of Cassation rejected their requests, believing that the convictions of these militants of Alternatiba and Anv-Cop21 did not affect “disproportionate” to the freedom of expression of these activists, reason that they had invoked.
A dozen activists were prosecuted, after actions committed in Paris, on February 21 and 28, 2019, in La Roche-de-Glun (Drôme), April 13, 2019 and in Lingolsheim (Bas-Rhin), on 29 July 2019 and sentenced to a few hundred euros suspended suspended on the three judgments of the courts of appeal respectively in Paris, Grenoble and Strasbourg. “It is a disappointment, but the decisions of the Court of Cassation bring new elements, which will be useful to us to continue the debate and legal actions,” said one of the applicants’ lawyers on Wednesday, Paul Mathonnet .
The latter will now turn to the European Court of Human Rights. “We will thus continue the debate on this, non -violent mode of action, which mobilizes, for a large part, youth and which is all the more necessary as the climate emergency is amplified and that the president Macron has been Re -elected and therefore risks continuing to conduct a policy that is not up to the stakes, “said Pauline Boyer, one of the Parisian” dropouts “of Portrait.
For activists as for their lawyers, one of the important points lies in particular in the recognition by the Court of Cassation that facts under a criminal offense, in this case the theft of an object, can constitute a means Freedom of expression, “given the nature and context of the act in question”. “The Court of Cassation confirms with this decision that freedom of expression can justify non -violent militant actions when they come from subjects of general interest such as climate change,” said M e Paul Paul Mathonnet.
Exercise of freedom of expression
With regard to the theft of the portraits of the President of the Republic, the activists prosecuted argued that the facts, which they recognized – especially since they acted with an open face and claimed in front of the press their actions – “were part of the exercise of freedom of expression and obeyed a political mobile, because they aimed to force the public authorities to act in the face of climate urgency”, can be read in judgments of the court cassation
You have 40.26% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.