The right to demonstrate will be at the heart of the trial of nine activists, including union leaders and environmentalists, which is being held in Niort on September 8. They are prosecuted for having organized rallies against the “mega-basins” in Sainte-Soline, in Deux-Sèvres
Nine environmental activists and union leaders are on trial this Friday, September 8 in Niort for having organized demonstrations against “mega-basins” in Deux-Sèvres. Especially for defying protest bans. Earth Uprising activists Benoît Feuillu and Basile Dutertre, representatives of the Peasant Confederation Benoît Jaunet and Nicolas Girod, as well as the spokesperson for the “Bassines non merci” collective Julien Le Guet are among them. The defendants face six months’ imprisonment and a fine of 7,500 euros.
The Deux-Sèvres prefecture criticizes these nine people for their involvement in “the organization of prohibited demonstrations on public roads”, their “participation in a group with a view to preparing violence against people or destruction or damage to property ” and the “degradation or deterioration of the property of others”, among others.
These gatherings, which had been banned by the authorities, took place in Sainte-Soline, where a project to build water reservoirs dedicated to agricultural irrigation is very controversial. Nearly 30,000 people showed up on March 25, 2023 near the Sainte-Soline site. The clashes between the demonstrators and the police had been marked by great violence. Two people spent long weeks in a coma and the injuries numbered in the hundreds. More than 5,000 grenades had been fired by the police.
A “political” trial according to activists
The defendants denounce a “political trial”. Their lawyers believe that the procedure aims to deter the organization of social movements. “This trial is an attack on the right to demonstrate,” Pierre Huriet, lawyer for Solidaires, told AFP. “Its objective is to discourage social movements,” he added. Alice Becker, council of CGT trade unionists, shares this point of view. “It is an obstacle to the freedom of demonstration, of opinion, but also of unions,” she declared. She denounced “a desire to intimidate individuals and create fear”.
The defense questions the reasons for prosecuting individuals, rather than the organizations they represent. “It is not because we are spokespersons for a movement that we are an organizer,” declared Marie Dosé, lawyer for Julien Le Guet and Basile Dutertre.
The lawyers of the Peasant Confederation, Chirine Heydari-Malayeri, Inès Giacometti and Balthazar Lévy, denounce “a criminalization of political and union action”. “It is all the more unacceptable since the agricultural union is warning about the preservation of water and equal access to this essential common good,” they declared.
The secretary general of the CGT, Sophie Binet, for her part estimated on France info that the “scenario” of the trial was “written in advance” by the government. “The government wants to place responsibility for the serious violence that took place in Sainte-Soline on our long-standing, well-known, peaceful organizations,” she declared.