- Three animal activists have had their prison terms confirmed or increased, on appeal.
- A fourth, whose sentence was the heaviest, ultimately withdrew and did not appear at the hearing.
- They were found guilty of fifteen acts of vandalism against, in particular, food businesses.
They had appealed their conviction in April 2019. Three animal activists had their sentence confirmed or increased, on appeal, Monday. A fourth, Cyrile B., whose sentence had been the heaviest (ten months in prison), had finally withdrawn and failed to appear at the hearing which took place last month.
This affair had started in December 2018 with the nighttime degradation of four food shops: tags, broken display cases, attempted use of explosives ...
Larger attacks
At the time, acts of vandalism, especially against butchers, had multiplied in the metropolis of Lille. This time, the attacks took on another scale which will go as far as the attempt to set fire to a Roubais restaurant, twice, in February 2019.
Four defendants, claiming to be from the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), were arrested and charged with 15 acts of "deliberate degradation committed in the meeting of the property of others" on butchers, restaurants and a fur trade.
Heavy conviction
Cyrile B. and Mathilde B., considered to be the leaders, had been sentenced by the criminal court of Lille, respectively to ten and six months in prison. The two other antispecies activists, found guilty of complicity, had received a six-month suspended prison sentence.
Sentences which were confirmed by the Douai Court of Appeal. As for Mathilde B., she saw her sentence increased to ten months in prison instead of six. "During this new hearing, she adopted a posture consisting in persisting in claiming the actions perpetrated, unlike the other defendants, many in an attitude of contrition", deplores the lawyer for the civil parties, Me Damien Legrand.
Lille
A look back on several months of activism and anti-specific vandalism in Lille
Lille
Relaxation and suspended prison sentence for antispecies who had vandalized businesses and remained silent at trial
- Animal protection
- Conviction
- Vandalism
- Justice
- Lille
- Trial