It is the end of a three-year legal epic for Pierre-Alain Mannoni and a new victory for the activists of aid to migrants.
On Wednesday, the Lyon Court of Appeal released this 49-year-old academic from Nice for transporting three Eritreans from Italy.
"It is excellent news, the consecration of the principle of fraternity", declared to his lawyer, Maéva Binimelis, a few months after the similar decision rendered in May by this same court in favor of the farmer of the Roya valley Cédric Herrou, emblematic activist of this cause.
READ ALSO>
In the Roya valley, we help migrants
This release of all the heads of prosecution against him "shows that (Mr. Mannoni) pursued a humanitarian goal and that we can transport people regardless of their origin," said the lawyer.
“I am very happy and relieved.
It is also a relief for all those who supported me during all these years ”, reacted the academic of Nice of 49 years.
“It was important to close this case,” he continued.
Five months suspended had been required
For him, this decision shows that "the State is outside the law on our borders".
“The values of fraternity are solid values that cannot be negotiated,” the teacher-researcher further underlined.
"I am proud to pass them on to my daughter", by her side on Wednesday in Lyon.
Five months suspended prison sentence was required during the hearing on September 23 against Pierre-Alain Mannoni, tried for having transported three Eritrean migrants from Italy.
His young passengers were arrested with him on October 18, 2016 at the Turbie tollgate, in the Alpes-Maritimes.
Pierre-Alain Mannoni had picked them up in a squat run by associations and had lodged them one night at his home, before taking them to Cagnes-sur-Mer station.
They were to be treated in Marseille by associations.
“When I saw them, it tore my heart,” the teacher explained in September, struck, he said, by “fear in the eyes” of these women, including a minor.
"In my head, I was charged with a mission, that of ensuring their safety."
The Advocate General considered that Pierre-Alain Mannoni had "had the will to remove these three people from the state controls put in place as part of its migration policy".
"It is a gesture which is not to be condemned"
The principle of fraternity recognized by the Constitutional Council in July 2018 had forced the government to rewrite the law to specify that, while assistance with entry into the territory is still a crime, assistance with movement and residence no. t is not punishable if it is carried out for humanitarian purposes and without compensation.
"Nobody can imagine that Mr. Mannoni could have received a counterpart for his help", had pleaded his lawyer by asking for the release.
Relaxed in Nice at first instance in January 2017, Pierre-Alain Mannoni was then sentenced to two months suspended prison sentence by the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal and appealed to the Supreme Court.
Based on the opinion of the Constitutional Council, the high court had annulled the sentences of Pierre-Alain Mannoni and Cédric Herrou a few months later and referred these cases to the Lyon Court of Appeal.
Newsletter - Most of the news
Every morning, the news seen by Le Parisien
I'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to enable you to receive our news and commercial offers.
Learn more
Denying himself to be an "activist", the academic had in the past already provided assistance to four Sudanese and supported a young Guinean of 20 years.
"I am well aware that the cause that I defend by the simple and obvious action that I have made has become a symbol", he had declared before the hearing.
Helping migrants, "it is a gesture which is not reprehensible from a point of view of natural law, of French law", he had estimated.
The Lyon Court of Appeal agreed with him.