Italian activist Vincenzo Vecchi, in front of the Angers courthouse.
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JF.Monier / AFP
Its support committee hailed a "great victory in terms of law and common sense".
New success for the defense of Vincenzo Vecchi.
After Rennes, the Angers Court of Appeal also refused, on Wednesday, to hand over to Italy the anti-globalization activist, who took refuge in Morbihan after his conviction following the riots on the sidelines of the G8 in Genoa in 2001.
In a very reasoned decision, the Angevin court ruled that it could not execute the European arrest warrant issued by Italy, because the main penalty of ten years in prison incurred by Vincenzo Vecchi for "devastation and looting" did not had no equivalent in France.
This incrimination, introduced into the Italian Penal Code at the time of Mussolini, in fact concentrates criticism from the defense.
It makes it possible to retain the guilt of the Italian activist "because of his mere presence on the scene, since there are elements likely to characterize his adhesion to the actions of a group", underlined the court of call.
It thus allowed the Italian justice to sanction Vincenzo Vecchi with "greater severity" than if he had been condemned for simple "degradations in assembly", punishable under French law, according to the court.
The magistrates therefore refused the surrender of Vincenzo Vecchi to Italy but also the execution of his sentence in France for an offense that does not exist in French law.
"Slap for
Italy
"
Defense lawyer Catherine Glon praised the court's “remarkable and in-depth work”, referring to a “slap in the face for Italy”.
The court will also determine at a new hearing whether Vincenzo Vecchi must execute a remaining sentence of one year, two months and 23 days in prison in France or in Italy, corresponding to convictions for theft with violence and transport and use. of Molotov cocktails.
Sentenced in 2009 to twelve and a half years in prison, Vincenzo Vecchi was one of the “ten of Genoa”, ten activists sentenced, often to very heavy sentences, for the G8 clashes.
He was arrested on August 8, 2019 in Rochefort-en-Terre, where he had been working as a house painter for many years.
After three months of detention, he was released on November 15, 2019 by the Rennes Court of Appeal, which ruled "the execution procedure" of the European arrest warrant irregular.
The Court of Cassation finally referred the case to the Angers Court of Appeal.
The protests against the G8 summit were marked by much violence.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has condemned Italy on three occasions for the police actions carried out on the sidelines of the Genoa summit, equating the "uncontrolled" violence of the police officers with "acts of torture".
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