A very “Corsican” staging, with shotguns slung over the shoulder and balaclavas. In September 2017, several media received a video via a USB key showing a group of armed men solemnly announcing, with emphasis, the return of bear hunting in the Pyrenees. The video has never been claimed, but the prefect of Ariège had filed a complaint pointing to “a mockery of a terrorist organization” and “a pathetic drift into violence and illegality”.
The episode of the “anti-bear commando” from Ariège must have its epilogue this Tuesday in Foix, with four alleged members of the commando, who fiercely deny their participation in this video threatening a protected species.
Among them, Philippe Lacube, the emblematic spokesman of the Association for the preservation of the Ariège-Pyrenees heritage (Aspap), who has since become the president of the Chamber of Agriculture of Ariège, and who moreover received Monday at this title the visit of the Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau. Rémi Denjean, another breeder known for his antiplantigrade fight, also appears.
According France Blue Occitaniathe defendants’ lawyers denounce “a political trial”.