The Lyon Criminal Court on Thursday, November 4 released three of the seven ultra-left activists prosecuted for willful violence during an anti-pass demonstration last August and sentenced the other four to simple fines of 300 euros.
Two activists were sentenced to one month suspended prison sentence but for another fact: the refusal of a biological sample during their arrest.
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The prosecution had requested sentences of two months suspended to two years imprisonment, including one year suspended, but the court quashed almost all of the proceedings, finding that the record lacked general instructions from the prosecutor. at the start of the survey.
According to the magistrates, the prosecution was not notified until September 2 of the investigation by the police, four days after the events of August 28.
The use of video surveillance has also been canceled.
The prosecution also requested a ban on demonstrations, for a period of one to three years, against three of the defendants who had molested three alleged militants of the far-right group Civitas, during a demonstration against the health pass. , August 28, 2021 in Lyon.
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"Is it inevitable to imagine that Lyon is the scene of such violence, or does that call for a firm response?"
, had questioned the prosecutor Alain Grellet, warning against the use of violence under the pretext of fighting against ideas,
"as nauseating as they are"
.
The magistrate detailed the scene of violence involving protesters between the ages of 21 and 55, attacking three people, one of whom was punched and kicked as she fell to the ground.
Three of the defendants, identified by video surveillance images on file, were arrested on September 23 and placed in pre-trial detention.
At the hearing, the defendants claimed that they had been insulted and provoked by far-right activists, and that they had simply wanted them to leave the procession.
Some claim that the group of suspected Civitas activists had made anti-Semitic remarks, and carried out the initial violence.
None of the injured have lodged a complaint, nor have they been identified.
"So many on one person, what does that refer you to?"
, questioned the president of the tribunal, Brigitte Vernay.
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Stickers of the anti-fascist group of Lyon and its surroundings (GALE) were found in the possession of a defendant but the defendants did not recognize their membership in this ultra-left group, regularly involved in rivalries against small groups of 'far right.
For the defense, lawyer Hervé Banbanaste pleaded the incompetence of the court, considering that political offenses, such as gatherings or groups, but also violence whose motive would have been inspired by political reasons, are excluded from a immediate appearance procedure.
The lawyer Olivier Foray, another defender of the defendants, criticized
"the imbalance"
of the action of the prosecution, too severe, according to him, against the militants of the ultra-left, while groups of extreme right
“continue to have a storefront”
.
