He is accused of having thrown a stone at a gendarme at the end of February in Saïx, in Tarn.
An opponent of the A69 Toulouse-Castres motorway project was sentenced Monday to six months in prison by the Castres court.
The prosecution had requested eight months against this 31-year-old man, tried for “violence without incapacity”, aggravated by the use or threat of a weapon and concealment of the face.
The defendant, who has two mentions in his criminal record, including one in 2016 for violence with threat or use of a weapon during the “Nuit Debout” movement against the labor law, denied the facts at the hearing.
He was accused of having thrown a stone from the ballast of the railway line, below the “Zone to be defended” created by opponents of the A69, on the sidelines of an attempt to supply activists who were camping in trees to prevent their planned felling for the construction of the highway.
“I didn’t throw anything away”
According to the photos described by the president of the Castres court, “the individual wore a helmet, a black top and a headlamp around his neck, he had a projectile in his hand”.
" Is that you ?
" he asks.
“Difficult to say, there were several of us,” defends the defendant.
“I didn’t throw anything at the police,” he says.
Also read “No ZAD will be tolerated”: Gérald Darmanin’s message of firmness against opponents of the A69
“The expression of his ideas cannot justify the exercise of violence,” said the deputy public prosecutor, Claire-Marie De Agostini.
According to the prosecution, the investigation is based on “a very precise description and the use of videos”.
On the other hand, for the defendant's lawyer, Claire Dujardin, who pleaded for acquittal, there was "not enough evidence" to convict him.
“We are not certain that the person seen at 4:30 p.m. threw projectiles,” she added, stressing that the hearings of the two gendarmes who filed the complaint were contradictory.