Eighteen months in prison, including twelve months suspended and a fine of 15,000 euros, were required on Monday against two Marseille construction contractors tried for having dumped rubble in the heart of the Calanques National Park, in a Natura 2000 site.
The two business leaders, who contest the facts, had been trapped by automatic cameras placed on the land belonging to the Israelite Consistory of Marseille. Between January 17 and March 29, 2018, these photo captures had made it possible to count sixteen rotations of two trucks belonging to them.
A few weeks earlier, in December 2017, the Calanques National Park had drawn up a report establishing the presence of this rubble – rock blocks, concrete, glass wool, plastics, tiles – over an area of 2,000 square meters and a height eight meters.
The two defendants claimed in court that they had made a verbal agreement with the Consistory allowing them to store equipment, topsoil and their trucks in exchange for cleaning the land. According to their statements, the photos showing their trucks dumping their dumpsters would only be displacements of rubble already present on the spot.
They plead for release
Denouncing a “scourge that distorts our region”, prosecutor Michel Sastre did not believe this version: “This speech saddens me. You have here the archetype of rogue bosses who think they are saving money with impunity and who come to present themselves as defenders of the environment, ”he accused, stressing that these sixteen rotations highlighted represented for them a savings of 24,000 euros.
An environmental inspector from the Calanques National Park underlined “the serious impact of this polluting waste on the fauna, flora and habitats of the park” in a site classified as a landscape for its exceptional beauty. Referring to the scourges facing the Calanques, this inspector observed that “after the fires, nature repairs itself, but with these dumpings of waste no repair is possible”.
“We took this land for a waste disposal center”, lamented Céleste Savignac, lawyer for the Consistory, who claimed 4,500 euros in damages, the amount of an estimate for cleaning the land, and 2,000 euros in moral damages. Denouncing an “empty and wobbly file”, Linda Sennaoui demanded the release of the two entrepreneurs. Judgment will be delivered on November 21.