Some of the dropouts from portraits of Emmanuel Macron, before the Bordeaux Court of Appeal, September 16, 2020 -

ANV-COP 21

They received fines ranging from 250 to 600 euros, suspended for three of them.

Eight people were fined Wednesday for having "dropped" from four town halls in the Arcachon basin in May 2019, portraits of the President of the Republic, according to a judgment of the Bordeaux Court of Appeal.

The defendants, activists of the ANV-COP 21 Gironde collective aged 22 to 64, were found guilty of theft in a meeting and aiding and abetting theft in a meeting.

At the hearing, on June 24, the prosecution requested "symbolic penalties".

Their action was part of a national campaign to protest against the government's “inaction” in the face of the “climate emergency”.

Freedom of expression cannot be invoked according to the court

The Court of Appeal rejected the arguments of the defense, which pleaded the release and maintained that the action was justified under the principle of freedom of expression and within the framework of a "state of necessity".

According to the ruling, freedom of expression cannot be invoked “because it can never justify the commission of a criminal offense.

If the legal notion of whistleblower does exist, it cannot find any application here ”.

The state of necessity can not be invoked either "because assuming that there is" a current or imminent danger "threatening the defendants, resulting from" the climate emergency ", of which it does not however belong to the justice of say whether it is real or supposed, as the Criminal Court (Bordeaux in December 2019) ventured to say, there is no evidence that the theft of the portraits of the President of the Republic in town halls allows defendants to be protected from the danger they denounce, within the meaning of article 122-7 of the penal code ”.

At first instance, the court found the eight activists guilty but gave them two months to return the portraits and thus escape a sentence.

The defendants and the prosecution appealed.

The eight condemned will go to cassation

“We are disappointed, a fine of 600 euros, it is not a symbolic penalty.

We know very well that Bordeaux is not a lenient jurisdiction concerning actions around the climate emergency, ”said Eric Payen, one of the eight convicted.

“We cannot accept being sentenced to penalties for having exercised our duty of civic vigilance in the face of a danger which threatens humanity itself by the end of the century.

And we will continue our legal fight until our guilt is lifted, ”said one of the convicts in a press release from ANV-COP 21 Gironde on Wednesday.

The eight have announced their intention to appeal. 

Eric Payen has, moreover, indicated that he would be judged in correctional in January in Bordeaux for similar facts, after “dropouts” of portraits of Emmanuel Macron in the summer of 2019 in the Médoc.

Justice

Lyon: Dropouts from a portrait of Macron, released at first instance, were sentenced on appeal

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Bordeaux: To avoid a penalty, the "dropouts" must return the portraits of Macron

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