Justice opened an investigation after the overflight of a prohibited zone by a drone used by the journalist Hugo Clément (“Sur le Front”) during a report on the production of hydrogen by Air Liquide in Seine-Maritime, has indicated Wednesday the prosecutor of Le Havre.
In a video posted on his Instagram account on Tuesday, the journalist, a declared environmental protection activist, announced that he had been the subject of a police check near the Air Liquide industrial site in Port-Jérôme-sur-Seine. (Seine Maritime). In particular, he showed the seizure of equipment by a “substitute prosecutor” in the trunk of a car, surrounded by police vehicles.
“We sent filming requests, without success. Refusal upon refusal. So we came anyway, without permission,” he says. According to a police source, the team, made up of Hugo Clément and two other people, was seen filming Air Liquide’s “Seveso” classified site in Port-Jérôme, located in a vast complex housing many other chemical and petroleum facilities, such as the Esso refinery.
“Two drones equipped with cameras were seized”
The site security service alerted the police who intervened. The journalists not having a filming authorization and a drone being visible in their vehicle, they warned the prosecution.
“The code of criminal procedure requires that searches of the premises of a press company or in the professional vehicles of these companies be carried out by a magistrate”, explained to AFP the public prosecutor of Le Havre, Bruno Dieudonné. . “A substitute came to the scene for this purpose. Two drones equipped with cameras were seized and will be operated “as part of an investigation” opened for overflight by an aircraft of a prohibited area, an offense punishable by a sentence of one year’s imprisonment and 45,000 euros. fine,” he said.
“There was no custody measure and the people held on the spot by the security service and checked by the police will be heard later”, adds Bruno Dieudonné.
Asked by AFP, Air Liquide “confirms that it was contacted by the ”Sur le Front” team, and that it answered their questions in detail”. The company, which says it does not intend to file a complaint, “recalls that the Port-Jérôme site has been open to the press on numerous occasions”. Asked, Hugo Clément did not wish to give more details. “We will tell everything in detail in our program ”Sur le front”, on France 5″, he wrote in an email.