Is Cédric Herrou a humanitarian activist or a smuggler of migrants?
The Court of Cassation is due to rule this Wednesday, March 31 on his acquittal, in a trial where he was appearing for having introduced migrants into France from Italy.
The Lyon public prosecutor's office is at the origin of the appeal.
At the first hearing, on March 3, the Advocate General recommended that the judgment be quashed.
To read also: Goldnadel: "The release of Cédric Herrou reveals the dangers of a government of judges"
The deliberation will constitute a new stage in an already long legal course, which has shown the hesitations of the justice on the case of the activist farmer.
In August 2016, Cédric Herrou was arrested for the first time, carrying eight undocumented migrants in his van to take them across the Franco-Italian border.
He reiterated the operation subsequently, but Justice had initially refused to deal with the case, citing "
humanitarian intentions
", before sentencing him in February 2017 to a fine of 3000 euros suspended for help. to the illegal entry, movement and stay of a foreigner in France.
The Constitutional Council to the rescue of Cédric Herrou
The attorney general had at the time appealed, considering that the action of Cédric Herrou was part of
the global challenge of the law
and found a counterpart by serving his militant cause.
The Aix-en-Provence court of appeal had sentenced the farmer to four months suspended prison sentence for the passage of some two hundred migrants from Italy to France, mainly Eritreans and Sudanese.
Cédric Herrou had mentioned a "
political manipulation
" of the court, claiming to "
replace the deficiency of the State
".
Having organized a reception camp on his own land, he is however considered by some as a simple smuggler of migrants.
Read also: Laxity of justice: when magistrates and police are passing the buck
Other legal actions followed before a referral to the Constitutional Council by its lawyers.
The latter had agreed with Cédric Herrou, by partially censoring the decisions and affirming "
the freedom to help others, for humanitarian purposes, regardless of the legality of their stay on the national territory
", July 6, 2018. The decision had even resulted in changes to the law in Parliament.
After several trials, Cédric Herrou was released from the prosecution in this case in May 2020, but the Lyon Public Prosecutor's Office had decided to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The Advocate General had maintained at the first hearing that Cédric Herrou had knowingly removed the migrants he was transporting from police checks, thus not being able to protect himself from "
humanitarian immunity
".
For his part, Me Spinosi, lawyer of the defendant, had affirmed that this appeal amounted to requesting a "
frontal questioning of the sovereign appreciation of the judges
".
On February 23, the activist was also sentenced by the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal to a suspended fine of 2,000 euros for public insult against the deputy LR Éric Ciotti.