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On April 21, 2019, Identity Generation activists conducted a dam operation to prevent access to migrants on the Col de l'Echelle in Névache, near Briançon, on the Franco-Italian border. ROMAIN LAFABREGUE / AFP

Activists from the far-right group Génération Identitaire were sentenced to jail on Thursday 29 August. In the spring of 2018, they had carried out an anti-migrant operation on the border between France and Italy.

A year and a half ago, the Col de l'Echelle in the Alps was a route taken by migrants to go from Italy to France . A hundred activists from the far-right group Génération Identitaire chose him for an operation. Code name: Alpes mission .

With the help of helicopters, gates and smoke, the goal was to stop the refugees from passing. Border guard apprentices proclaimed that the maneuver was legal and there was no reason to pursue them.

Six months in prison

The court of Gap did not hear it that way. The three instigators of the action are sentenced to six months in prison, 2,000 euros fine and five years of deprivation of their civil rights.

They are accused of wanting to take the place of the state and the police. Or, in legal language, to have " maintained confusion with the exercise of a public office. "

This judgment, however, does not satisfy many people. The defendants have already announced that they will appeal. On the side of the associations for the defense of migrants, it is deplored that the charges of endangering the lives of others and inciting racial hatred have not been retained by the prosecution against the members Identity Generation.