The migrant aid activist Pierre-Alain Mannoni has been released from all the prosecutions brought against him by the Lyon Court of Appeal, the lawyer for the Nice academic told AFP on Wednesday (October 28th).
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This is excellent news, the consecration of the principle of fraternity,
" commented Me Maéva Binimelis, after the similar decision rendered in May by the same court in favor of the farmer of the Roya valley Cédric Herrou, emblematic activist of this cause.
Five months suspended prison sentence was requested on September 23 against Mr. Mannoni, a 49-year-old teacher-researcher, tried for transporting three Eritrean migrants from Italy.
His young passengers had been arrested with him on October 18, 2016 at the Turbie toll (Alpes-Maritimes),
Relaxed in Nice at first instance in January 2017, the teacher was then sentenced to two months in prison suspended by the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal and appealed to the Supreme Court.
The high court had quashed his conviction in December 2018 and referred the case to the Lyon Court of Appeal.
The “principle of fraternity”, recognized by the Constitutional Council in July 2018, had forced the government to rewrite the law to specify that, if assistance with entry into the national territory is still a crime, assistance with movement and stay is not punishable if it is carried out for humanitarian purposes and without compensation.