The images went around the world.
On December 1, 2018, during Act III of the yellow vests, the Parisian demonstration degenerates.
The day is punctuated by the sacking of the Arc de Triomphe on the Place de l'Etoile.
Two and a half years after this insurrectional day, the trial opens this Monday, March 22 in Paris.
But a minimum trial: as the investigating judges recognize at the end of their investigations, "it is clear that the instigators, even the main perpetrators of the facts, could not be identified for the violence and organized degradation. on the sidelines of the event ”.
In fact, the defendants look pale in view of the events that occurred that afternoon.
Ten people, eight men and two women, are preparing to appear in court for a week.
Six other indicted persons were finally returned only to the police court, that is to say for a simple offense, in this case entering a listed building.
These demonstrators, simple yellow vests activists and almost all without the slightest mention of the criminal record, had explained that they had found themselves in the monument mainly to protect themselves from tear gas.
A last suspect, minor at the time of the facts, will be tried by the juvenile court.
VIDEO. Arc de Triomphe: the clashes filmed on the police side with an on-board camera
Of the ten defendants, only four will be judged for the damage committed inside the Arc de Triomphe.
None has a leadership profile.
One of the suspects admitted to having thrown his bottle of beer on the window of a prefabricated building at the entrance to the monument.
Another, whose DNA was found on a piece of a broken statue, denies having committed the slightest degradation.
Just an adult, the third was filmed trying to break down one of the doors inside the site with a fire extinguisher.
The young man, who served two months in pre-trial detention, immediately declared that he regretted his gesture.
Over a million euros in damage
The only witness to the facts, a site receptionist, had described scenes that were much more violent.
"I saw a dozen people armed with hammers and chisels who banged on the windows, they blew them up, they stole everything they could steal, they also damaged the machines that distribute coins from the coin collections. of Paris, ”he confided, explaining that he had spotted a majority of Spaniards and Germans among the thugs.
The site administrator estimated the cost of the damage to be 1,028,000 euros.
As for the temporary closure of the monument for its restoration, it had generated an operating loss estimated at 200,000 euros.
VIDEO. They restore the vandalized Arc de Triomphe
An accused linked to the neo-Nazi movement
The case of the last presumed predator is more singular.
Sébastien F. was denounced by an anonymous information as having been the author of one of the many tags which covered the facade of the Arc de Triomphe: “Increase the RSA.
Boar ".
Sanglier is none other than the nickname of this 42-year-old man, domiciled with his parents in the Doubs and known for belonging to the neo-Nazi movement.
In his room, investigators discovered numerous weapons - a dimension which was the subject of a separate procedure - but also a photograph and a painting of Adolf Hitler, two Nazi flags, and several flags of the Union Defense Group ( GUD), the former far-right student union.
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Even if he admits his presence at the demonstration that day, Sébastien F. denies being the author of this message that several Internet users, close to the movement, attribute to him.
The judges wonder about the deletion of his Facebook account after the demonstration.
"We will plead the release pure and simple", announces his lawyer.
The concealment of a small Eiffel Tower
The investigation into the plundering component of the rampage did not prosper either.
Three defendants will be tried for theft: mainly postcards, a few figurines and an umbrella bearing the image of the Center des monuments nationaux (CMN).
A 35-year-old woman will also be tried for concealment of theft: she had recovered a replica of the Eiffel Tower inside the building.
"I hope that the judges will know how to make the difference now that the emotion has subsided and that the sentences will be individualized with regard to the facts and the personality of each of the defendants", confides Me Noémie Saidi-Cottier, the lawyer of two defendants.