Mega-basins of Sainte-Soline: in Niort, the trial of legitimacy is cut short

Charles Guyard (in Niort) 11:44 a.m., November 29, 2022

On Monday, five activists were prosecuted for their participation in the anti-basin demonstration organized in Sainte-Soline on Saturday, October 29 despite the prefectural ban.

But when the president of the Niort judicial court delivered his verdict shortly after 6 p.m. on Monday, the main interested parties were already far away.

In the middle of the afternoon, the four defendants - the fifth was absent for medical reasons - got up to leave the room at the request of their lawyer, Maître Alexis Baudelin, who had requested additional time to prepare his defense.

They were sentenced to two to three months suspended prison sentence as well as a two to three year ban on appearing in the department of Deux-Sèvres.

A demonstration interspersed with clashes with the police

This anti-basin demonstration in Sainte-Soline on October 29 and 30 was punctuated by clashes with the police.

What is the legal translation?

Participation in a group to commit violence and degradation, punishable by one year's imprisonment and a fine of 15,000 euros.

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Make this audience a forum

An offense that François Bouyat has always contested.

Originally from Charente, this 66-year-old retired sports teacher still does not understand why he had to undergo 48 hours of police custody and judicial review.

"This trial is for me an additional violence, but if it is an opportunity to highlight the issues that led us to demonstrate, that is to say the preservation of water as a common good and the denial of democracy of the whole basin decision-making process, then this trial will not have been useless," he said.

All, in short, wanted to make this audience a platform.

This is only a postponement.

Released to the applause of some 200 supporters gathered in front of a courthouse placed under high police protection, their lawyer gave an appointment on appeal where, he hopes, the "legitimacy of this fight" will be recognized by justice.

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This is nevertheless what the only witness called by the defense tried to do when he came to testify during the hearing, which was therefore held without the five defendants.

André, 85, has "sworn to tell the whole truth".

Faced with the judge who questioned him about the excesses of the demonstration viewed on the two screens in the room, this former farmer above all expressed his "amazement at having been attacked with tear gas canisters" during the procession.

Because yes, he too was in it, at the end of October.

"Why then were the people here arrested, and the others left out?"

This is precisely the question that many ask themselves when it comes to identifying the responsibilities of each.

However, the president of the court himself acknowledged, "the defendants are not accused of having participated in the violence", rather of having created a diversion to allow the most radical to act.

By their mere presence, “did they occupy the police and help the others who came there to fight it out?”, he asks in a vacuum, no one being there to answer.

“Civic disobedience is hard, but necessary”

To tell the truth, we are mostly guessing, and that's the problem with the relatively vague title of this law... André, he prefers to unfold his activist CV: "I was a voluntary reaper of OGM in 1998, there were prison sentences and significant reparations to be paid, but what happened in the end? There was a moratorium! It was indeed civic disobedience that made it possible to manage a social problem. Civil disobedience is hard, but necessary."

No feeling for the court which had to judge only on the legality of the fight.

For this, he had a defied prefectural decree as a reason, and the penal code available to punish, which he did after three hours of almost monologue.

On appeal, the defense promises to