A student in his twenties was sentenced Monday, May 15 to ten months in prison, five of which are closed, by the Rennes Criminal Court for violence committed in March on the sidelines of a demonstration against the pension reform. On Thursday evening, March 16, a few hours after the announcement by the government of the use of article 49.3 to reform pensions, violent demonstrations broke out in the Breton capital.
A group of 300 radical activists had damaged many signs and attacked the Mama Shelter Hotel, which had just been opened, and its security guards. "Our city is tonight the scene of staggering urban violence," said the PS mayor of Rennes Nathalie Appéré. The student, with a clean criminal record, was convicted of acts of violence, damage, participation in a group to commit violence and damage. He must also pay 800 euros in damages to each security guard and more than 10,000 euros to the hotel.
'Random arrests'
A two-year ban on participating in a demonstration in Ille-et-Vilaine, Loire-Atlantique and Landes (his home department) was also handed down. "There is obviously disappointment because it was a discharge that was pleaded in full for my client. We are rather convinced that, in this rather general chaos, there were random arrests and that he did not commit the facts of which he is accused, "said to AFP Me Nicolas Prigent at the end of the deliberation.
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I think that this evening should not go unpunished and that someone should be sentenced to come and respond to a number of requests, which have been formulated, of severity, or in any case of judicial responses, "added Mr. Prigent, who "should appeal" the decision. The prosecution had requested a ten-month prison sentence. Another defendant, a student tried for similar offences, was acquitted due to a nullity of the proceedings, the minutes having been annulled.
