"Judicial harassment" against the demonstrators: Amnesty overwhelms France

Police violence against demonstrators in France has been widely publicized, "judicial harassment" of which they are the object, less.

In a damning report released Tuesday, Amnesty International denounces a system designed to "crack down" on people who often have not committed offenses.

In 2018 and 2019, more than 40,000 people were convicted of various offenses and offenses "on the basis of vague laws", frequently "used to illegally restrict the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression," says long.

Its 56-page report documents dozens of cases of peaceful protesters "arbitrarily arrested" and "victims of judicial harassment", according to Amnesty, during the period of popular mobilization of the "yellow vests" and against the pension reform.

Police custody, searches, summons

Frédéric Vuillaume, union leader of Force Ouvrière and "yellow vest" from the start in Besançon, tells of a "descent into hell" for him and his family, who had never had any dealings "with either the police or the justice "before the demonstrations of November 2018." It is true that I have a big mouth and that when I speak in the megaphone, one hears me, but that does not make me a criminal, I never committed no violence, "this 48-year-old maintenance worker told AFP.

"I was just relaying messages on Facebook calling for mobilization, like everyone else," he says.

But the prefecture and the prosecution did not hear it that way.

Accused of being one of the "leaders" of the movement in his city, he should, according to them, have declared the gatherings.

Police custody, house searches, court summons ... A long cycle of "pressure blows" and "intimidation" which will last two years then began for the activist and his relatives.

Tried three times for obstructing traffic and insulting a person holding public authority - he shouted "Castaner assassin" during a trip by the Minister of the Interior at the time - Frédéric Vuillaume was banned from demonstrating and ordered to pay a total of eight fines.

His wife was indicted twice and his 22-year-old stepson, with a clean criminal record, was sentenced in February 2019 to one year in prison, including six months closed for throwing a mortar firecracker.

"A political will to set examples"

"Violence during demonstrations is a legitimate concern, but there is a political will to set examples and dissuade people from taking to the streets," Marco Perolini, researcher for France at Amnesty International, told AFP.

The offenses, often formulated "too vaguely", lead the courts to pronounce "disproportionate" sanctions against peaceful demonstrators, according to the researcher.

In addition, "the demonstrators find themselves regularly arrested and prosecuted for 'regrouping with a view to participating in violence' on the basis of mere suspicion," he adds.

According to official statistics, 1,192 people were convicted of this offense in 2019.

According to Amnesty, the repression of demonstrators has increased with the adoption of new laws, notably that of April 2019, criminalizing behavior that was not previously a crime, such as covering the face.

In 2020, the health crisis was an opportunity to further extend restrictions on the right to demonstrate: according to the NGO, 85 people were fined for demonstrating in May and June.