Up to two years in prison were pronounced Tuesday, December 7 by the Bastia court against four football supporters arrested in 2016 after the discovery of "
explosive petanque balls
" during a demonstration in Bastia.
They demonstrated in support of Maxime Beux, this Corsican fan stricken in the Marne on February 13, 2016 during clashes on the sidelines of the Ligue 1 match between Stade de Reims and SC Bastia.
Maxime Beux was one of the four defendants before the Bastia Criminal Court.
Prosecuted for refusal to take DNA samples, he was released.
A fine of 600 euros including 300 suspended sentence had been requested against him.
Read alsoBastia: explosives found before the demonstration
During this demonstration of support, on February 20, 2016 in Bastia, the police discovered explosive devices stored in three bags near the Haute-Corse prefecture.
In these bags, ten pétanque balls filled with hunting powder and equipped with firing wicks, two loaves of 500 grams of nitram 9, an industrial explosive, and detonators.
The court sentenced to two years in prison the two supporters whose DNA had been found on these bags as well as on clothes and objects "which
could be used during urban violence
", in accordance with the requisitions of the public prosecutor of Bastia Arnaud Viornery.
They were released from the refusal to take DNA samples.
"Lethal risk"
Against the fourth defendant, prosecuted for criminal conspiracy and refusal to take DNA samples, the court handed down a 10-month prison sentence that could be converted into house arrest with an electronic bracelet and a fine of 300 euros for refusal to take the sample. His DNA had been found on a bag containing clothes, next to the bags of explosive devices. At the hearing on November 2, the prosecutor denounced "
facts which could have sowed chaos in the streets of Bastia and killed people
": "
Even if time has passed, we must take the measure of the inherent lethal risk to the manufacture of this type of machine
”.
Indicted for "
willful violence with the use or threat of a weapon resulting in permanent mutilation
", the Reims police officer accused of having knocked out Maxime Beux was returned to the Marne Assize Court and faces 15 years imprisonment criminal in a trial slated for 2022.