Relief, cries of joy and warm hugs. This is how opponents of the radioactive waste landfill project in Bure (Meuse) welcomed the decisions of the Nancy Court of Appeal on Thursday. The latter pronounced very light sentences against seven of them, tried for their participation in a demonstration in August 2017.
She did not follow any requisition from the prosecution and totally released four of the seven activists. They were prosecuted for possession of substances or products “in an organized gang”, “intended for the constitution of explosive or incendiary devices”, as well as for violence for one of them. The other three, prosecuted for having organized and participated in an undeclared demonstration in Bure on August 15, 2017, were all released for the organization of the demonstration but were sentenced to 4 months in prison, suspended for having participated in it.
During the hearing on November 29, the Advocate General had requested sentences ranging from 8 to 10 months suspended for six defendants, and 12 months for the seventh, already sentenced in the past for other facts.
At first instance, in June 2021, the Bar-le-Duc criminal court sentenced two of the seven opponents to 9 and 12 months in prison. Four others had received suspended sentences of 6 to 9 months in prison. All had appealed against their conviction.
“Deleterious project”
“It’s the mountain giving birth to a mouse”, reacted Me Brigitte Jeannot, on behalf of the Union of Lawyers of France (SAF). The latter, who came to collect the deliberations for her Parisian colleagues defending the activists, who were absent on Thursday, said she was “fully satisfied” with this decision, in particular because the criminal association, which had not been retained by the court of Bar-le-Duc, was not either by the Court of Appeal of Nancy.
“But it is incredible to realize that the lives of these people have been arrested for four years, with a disproportionate investigation procedure,” added Me Jeannot. “They were subjected to controls and judicial means of particular harshness, used for the sole purpose of preventing any form of resistance to this deleterious project. »
The demonstration of August 15, 2017 was one of the many episodes of a long-term protest against this project, baptized Cigeo, for a highly radioactive waste storage center in Bure, on the borders of the Meuse and Haute-Marne. .