In its judgment, the Nancy Court of Appeal pronounced very lightened penalties against opponents of the Cigeo Radioactive Waste Project in the Meuse.
By Rémi Dupré (with Bloomberg)
“Judicial fiasco”, “Camouflet”, “Flagrant failure”, “file which makes Pschitt” … The lawyers of opponents of the Cigeo landfill project by 2035 of radioactive waste on the small town of Bure (Meuse ) Rivalize scathing formulas to comment on the judgment rendered by the Nancy Court of Appeal, Thursday, January 26.
The jurisdiction pronounced very lightened sentences against seven anti -nuclear activists: she completely relaxed four of them and sentenced three of them to four months suspended prison for “facts of participation Without a weapon to a crowd after summons to disperse “in Bure, on August 15, 2017, during a demonstration which had not been the subject of a prior declaration in the prefecture.
The defendants were continued for “destruction, degradation or deterioration of property by explosive substance”, “detention of incendiary substances or explosive products in organized gang”, and “Organization of a demonstration on the public road not having is the subject of a prior declaration “and for” violence “.
In November 2022, during the hearing, the lawyer general had required sentences ranging from eight to ten months suspended for six defendants, and twelve months firm for the seventh, already condemned in the past for others Facts.
chief of “criminal association” not retained
On September 21, 2021, after the trial at first instance before the Criminal Court of Bar-le-Duc (Meuse), six of the seven defendants had been sentenced. Sentences of twelve and nine months in prison had been pronounced against two opponents, already sentenced in the past as part of other cases. Four other activists had been sentenced to sentences of six to nine months suspended prison sentence.
Co -president of the association Bure Zone Libre at the time of the incriminated facts and figure of the opposition to the geological storage project of nuclear waste, J. D., 40, had been sentenced to nine months suspended prison for having organized the Illicit manifestation of August 15, 2017, during which clashes had broken out between anti-nuclear activists and the police.
This time, the Nancy Court of Appeal relaxed J. D. of this chief in the absence of “objective evidence” demonstrating that he “participated in preparatory meetings intended to organize the demonstration”.
As at first instance, the leader “of criminal association” was not retained by the Nancy Court of Appeal. “It is demonstrated only the existence of a group of individuals, carrying out actions relating to a certain improvisation, without defined hierarchy; this group cannot be assimilated to an organized band which requires proof of a structured organization, With a defined hierarchy and with a delinquantial goal, “concludes the jurisdiction.
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