Seventeen yellow vests judged for the degradation of the Arc de Triomphe

“Yellow vests” pose in front of the tag inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe, in Paris, on December 1.

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The images had traveled the world.

Seventeen people will be judged following the degradation of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on December 1, 2018 during a demonstration of "yellow vests".

Some people for "damage" and "theft", AFP learned Friday from judicial sources close to the case.

During act 3 of the "yellow vests", the monument had been the scene of insurrectionary scenes which had marked the spirits.

A judicial investigation had been opened.

Investigating judges evoke damage, theft and violence

Inside the monument, furniture had been destroyed and works of art damaged, for damage estimated at more than one million euros.

The day had given rise to 412 arrests and the placement in police custody of 378 people.

The next day, the head of state Emmanuel Macron symbolically went to the foot of the monument, where the unknown soldier lies.

According to the referral order signed at the end of August and of which AFP was able to take note, "it is clear that the instigators, even the main perpetrators of the facts could not be identified".

The investigating judges also evoke damage, theft and violence committed by "a very large number of individuals".

During the investigations which lasted more than a year, many of the seventeen people implicated in this procedure indicated to have "taken refuge" in the Arc de Triomphe because of the tear gas and contested any degradation.

Coming from all over France, these demonstrators were mostly in their twenties or thirties at the time of the events.

Half had a clean criminal record.

In the end, four people were sent back to the criminal court and another, aged 17 at the time of the facts, to the children's court, for “aggravated degradation”.

Four people tried for break-ins

One person is accused of the degradation of a statue, two of "kicking and extinguisher on a door", a protester linked to the ultra-right a tag on the Arc, another the degradation of a window of a prefab.

Four people among these 17 will also be tried for break-ins: “miniature Eiffel Tower”, “postcards”, “books” or even “reproduction of a Napoleon Year III flintlock pistol”.

Six of these 17 people are referred to the police court for the sole offense of “unauthorized intrusion into a place classified or registered as a historic heritage”.

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