The standoff continues. The leader climber National Tree Monitoring Group (GNSA) had been arrested and taken into custody by the gendarmes on Wednesday May 24 while opponents of the A69 motorway project between Toulouse and Castres were relocating their camp to Vendine.
The opponent of the controversial Toulouse-Castres motorway project, placed in police custody on Wednesday, was released Thursday without being indicted, said the prosecution, while other activists are still camped near the site.
Thomas Brail, of the National Tree Monitoring Group (GNSA), who had participated in a previous camp in April and then set up tents in plane trees threatened with uprooting in Vendine (Tarn), had been taken away on Wednesday by the gendarmes to ” obstruction of the site”, according to the prosecutor of Toulouse, Samuel Vuelta-Simon.
The opponent summoned in June
Mr. Brail explained to AFP on Thursday that he was summoned to appear before the prosecution in early June to be offered sanctions, such as community service or a fine. However, he intends to “refuse, to go to court and discuss with the judge”, he said.
“It’s sad,” said Mr. Brail, for whom “it’s often those who are for the protection of the living who are in custody and the destroyers are outside”.
According to Thomas Digard, of the La Voie est libre collective, opponents of the A69 project are still camping in Vendine, after moving a few meters so as not to obstruct the site.
On April 22, during a festive mobilization, but under close surveillance, several thousand opponents of the construction of this 53 km section of motorway demonstrated in Saïx, in the Tarn, to denounce this project which they consider contradictory to the climate emergency.
Several local elected officials, however, support the project, which would reduce the Castres-Toulouse journey by around twenty minutes in 2025, which is a little over an hour today.