Pierre-Alain Mannoni at the courthouse in Lyon, September 23, 2020 -
AFP
Pierre-Alain Mannoni is on appeal for the transport of Eritrean migrants after the annulment of a previous conviction by the court of cassation.
The Advocate General requested five months suspended prison sentence against him.
"It was the right thing to do, vis-à-vis who I am, for others, for my children," he explained to the audience.
"He understood very well what were the limits of the law and he made a choice: to transgress it".
Advocate General Fabrice Tremel requested a five-month suspended prison sentence against the Nice Pierre-Alain Mannoni, tried Wednesday on appeal in Lyon for the transport of Eritrean migrants.
"He had the will to remove these three people from the state controls put in place as part of its migration policy," pointed out the magistrate.
He had "the perfect knowledge" that his passengers "were in an irregular situation", he said.
The court is due to deliver its judgment on October 28.
"It was the right thing to do"
On October 18, 2016, this teacher-researcher was arrested at the La Turbie toll booth (Alpes-Maritimes), with three “wounded” Eritrean women in his car from Italy.
He transported them from a squat to his home in order to accommodate them one night before taking them to Cagnes-sur-Mer station so that they could be treated in Marseille.
“I cannot go back on this gesture that I made.
Condemned or not, it won't change anything.
It was the right thing to do, vis-à-vis who I am, for others, for my children, ”the 49-year-old university told the bar during a new six-hour trial.
“Sincerity guides my life,” he assured the academic.
Defending himself from being an “activist”, described by witnesses as “a beautiful person”, “a little naive”, he had already helped four Sudanese shortly before his arrest and supported a young Guinean of 20 years old.
Two hundred people to support him
"My client did not cheat and was sincere to the end," pleaded vigorously his lawyer Me Maeva Binimelis, denouncing a "fierce" against his client.
“Trying to disguise the intentions of Pierre-Alain Mannoni is something deeply unbearable.
No one can imagine that he could have received compensation for his help, ”she added, asking for release.
Welcomed at the courthouse in Lyon by more than 200 activists from associations and sympathizers, Pierre-Alain Mannoni, 49, was tried once again after three years of a bitter legal battle.
Relaxed in Nice at first instance in January 2017, Pierre-Alain Mannoni was then sentenced to two months suspended prison sentence by the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal and appealed to the Supreme Court.
The court had annulled his sentence and returned the case to the Lyon Court of Appeal after the recognition of the "principle of fraternity" by the constitutional court, which he had seized at the end of 2018 just like the farmer Cédric Herrou, condemned for similar facts.
Justice
Tried on appeal for transporting Eritrean women, an academic says he is ready to "do it again"
Justice
The law has changed, Pierre-Alain Mannoni will be retried
Court of Appeal
Trial
Migrants
Lyon
Justice
Nice