A 48-year-old man was sentenced to twelve months in prison, eight of which were suspended for having recorded, detained and disclosed thousands of confidential documents belonging to the Freemasonic lodges of the Grand Orient de France and the Grande loge de France.
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In April 2016, Laurent G. published on the conspiracy site stopmensonges.com more than 6,000 files containing among other things the names, addresses and telephone numbers of the members of the Grand Lodge of France before starting again in November with more than 34,000 files belonging to at the Grand Orient de France lodge.
The defendant admitted to having shared these documents resulting from hacking, which he, on the other hand, denied having committed, on the sites of these lodges, saying that he was "
revolted
" by the "
double allegiance
" to which he submitted, according to him French magistrates members of Freemasonry.
The prosecutor referred to facts "
simple, and especially recognized by the creator and administrator of the site
", before adding: "
we are not facing a journalist or a whistleblower, he does not sort and publishes these documents without verification.
The facts are extremely serious that he absolutely does not realize.
"
The 48-year-old individual, arrested at Roissy in 2018 after having been the subject of a warrant to bring to the United States where he was residing at the time of the facts, was detached from the debates, speaking for more three hours in the absence of a lawyer.
He had published these lists under the name of "
Freemasonry Papers
" in reference to the Panama Papers scandal which broke out in 2016. He has also cited several times the names of whistleblowers Edward Snowden and Julian Assange in an attempt to justify his actions.
Me Jean-Pierre Cahen, the lawyer for the Grand Orient de France, relied during his plea on the recent example of Samuel Paty, assassinated after his name and contact details were broadcast on social networks.
"
You can stir up hatred by distributing these documents, and some can take action
," he said in front of an accused who remained with his eyes closed during a large part of the pleadings and the indictment.
This divorced man, father of a child, will also have to pay 7,000 euros to the Grand Orient de France lodge and the court's decision will be broadcast for a month on the websites of the newspapers
Liberation
,
Le Monde
and Le
Figaro
at his expense.