Cédric Herrou, at the Nice courthouse (Archives) -
F. Binacchi / ANP / 20 Minutes
The general prosecutor's office of Lyon had lodged an appeal in cassation after the release of the activist, figure of aid to migrants in France.
A procedure experienced as a "relentlessness" by the farmer, prosecuted for having conveyed around 200 undocumented migrants from the Italian border to his home.
In 2018, the Constitutional Council enshrined “the freedom to help others, for humanitarian purposes, regardless of the legality of their stay on national territory”.
The Court of Cassation is due to rule this Wednesday afternoon on the judgment rendered by the Lyon Court of Appeal in 2020. Will the release of Cédric Herrou be confirmed, thus putting the end to a long procedure punctuated by three trials and a referral to the Constitutional Council for the activist, a figure in aid to migrants in France?
This decision is awaited by his defense so "that it is thus recognized in a definitive way that he only helped others and that, in our Republic, fraternity cannot be a crime", declared his lawyer Me Sabrina Goldman.
The peasant from the Roya valley, in the Alpes-Maritimes, is being prosecuted for having conveyed in 2016 about 200 undocumented migrants, mostly Eritrean and Sudanese, from the Italian border to his home, then having organized with associations a reception camp in a former unoccupied SNCF holiday center.
"Exclusively humanitarian"
He was sentenced to a fine at first instance, then to four months in prison on appeal in 2017. With another activist, he then seized the Constitutional Council on the “offense of solidarity” of which they considered themselves victims.
In July 2018, the “Sages” consecrated “the freedom to help others, for humanitarian purposes, regardless of the regularity of their stay on national territory”.
A historic decision.
Parliament had to modify the law by now protecting from prosecution persons providing aid for the "stay" and "movement" of migrants if it is provided "without consideration" and "for an exclusively humanitarian purpose".
Two months later, the Court of Cassation quashed Cédric Herrou's conviction and sent the case back to Lyon, where he was released on May 13, 2020. The Lyon general prosecutor then appealed to the Supreme Court, experienced as "relentlessness" »By the farmer and his supporters.
"Call into question" the "sovereignty" of judges
During the hearing in the high court on March 3, the Advocate General, whose role is to defend the law, advocated cassation, a route which, if followed, can lead to a fourth trial.
He considered that the court had not "explained" on elements showing that Cédric Herrou had "knowingly" removed the people he was transporting from police checks, which may "contradict a purely humanitarian purpose".
If his behavior had the “consequence and not the aim of removing these people from controls”, this “could not at all times remove the exclusively humanitarian nature of the aid provided,” replied Patrice Spinosi.
The lawyer at the court of Cédric Herrou mainly affirmed that the appeal had to be rejected because it amounted to "questioning" the "sovereignty" of the judges of Lyon, while the Court of Cassation judges only the conformity with the rules of law , not the substance of the decisions.
In the case of another resident of Roya, the Court ruled in February 2020 that the “militant” and organized nature of the aid provided did not exclude being exempt from prosecution.
The Nice academic Pierre-Alain Mannoni, who seized the Constitutional Council alongside Cédric Herrou, was also acquitted by the Lyon Court of Appeal in October 2020. He was prosecuted for having transported in 2016 three Eritreans coming from 'Italy.
Here too, the general prosecutor's office appealed to the Supreme Court.
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