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The figure of the movement of "yellow vests" Eric Drouet and his lawyer when they arrived at the Paris court on June 5, 2019. Aurore MESENGE / AFP

On Wednesday, June 5, the Paris prosecutor's office requested a four-month suspended prison sentence and a 500 euro fine against Éric Drouet, emblematic figure of the "yellow vests" movement, for having participated in an undeclared demonstration with a kind of baton in his bag. The judgment will be rendered on 4 September.

The 34-year-old driver was arrested in the afternoon of Saturday, December 22, during the VI act of this unprecedented movement, in the Parisian district of La Madeleine, in the middle of a few dozen demonstrators stranded in a street. by the police.

The prosecutor requested that he be found guilty of all the charges against him: " participation in a group formed for the purpose of violence or degrading ", as well as " carrying a prohibited category D weapon " - " a piece of wood "according to the defense," a wooden baton "for the prosecution.

Pug or piece of wood

In the eyes of the magistrate, Eric Drouet " has voluntarily come with a baton ", and " when we come with a baton we are in a logic of violence ." The defendant told the investigators that he had forgotten this piece of wood, " memory " of his father, in the backpack he usually uses at work. " As a driver we all have something to defend ourselves," he explained at the hearing.

The defender of the driver, Cheops Lara, pleaded the acquittal. He notably challenged the qualification of " weapon " of this " piece of wood ", a simple " grigri ". Previously, the lawyer had pleaded nullity of the prosecutions, considering that Eric Drouet " was arrested brutally, without legitimate reason neither prior, during a peaceful demonstration " and denouncing " a procedure which diverts the criminal law " to " prevent people to manifest ". The court will rule on this motion for rescission at the time of its judgment to be rendered on 4 September.

Éric Drouet, he is here today because we reproach the possession of a category D weapon. Category D weapons are knives, daggers ... If we start to recognize that a tip of wood, it is a port of category D weapon and that you risk a year of prison and 15 000 euros of fine ...

Prison with a reprieve required against the "yellow vest" Eric Drouet 05/06/2019 - by Franck Alexandre Listen