The trial for the degradation and the thefts that took place at the Arc de Triomphe, on the sidelines of a demonstration of yellow vests on December 1, 2018, opened on Monday.
Ten people are on the dock but the main culprits have never been found, as the investigating judges indicated.
Ten people have been tried since Monday for the degradation of the Arc de Triomphe.
On December 1, 2018, "Yellow Vests" triggered act 3 of their movement which ended with the sacking of the Parisian monument.
Thanks to the images available, the authorities managed to identify some demonstrators, but not the most prominent, nor the instigators, according to the investigating judges.
The first speeches of the defendants who appear in court until Friday seem to confirm their minor role in these acts.
Minor roles in the rampage
The first to speak is a delivery man in the Paris region and has not stolen anything.
On December 1, 2018, he found himself in the staircase of the Arc de Triomphe.
He claims to have taken refuge there out of survival instinct to protect himself from tear gas.
As such, he risks only a fine.
The second is a 25-year-old Breton who arrived on site after the incident.
He also entered the monument to protect himself.
There he discovers the sacking of the souvenir shop.
When he was arrested, the police found four postcards on him.
Thus, even if he appears for theft, the president recognizes that four postcards do not constitute "the deal of the century".
>> Find Europe evening in replay and podcast here
The third, 18 years old at the material time, was filmed banging a door with a fire extinguisher.
He is young, speaks little and struggles to explain his gesture.
The hearing continues, but the testimonies are far from the violence and desolation seen on a video shown in the introduction.
In this film, everything is devastated: the works of art, the furniture or even the toilets tagged or destroyed.
We also see a dozen men looting offices, images that have been around the world.
The damage in this symbolic place of Paris has indeed cost more than a million euros to repair.