A Savoyard farmer was sentenced this Tuesday, October 14 by the Paris Criminal Court to a fine of 450 euros for violence committed against police officers during a demonstration against Mercosur last December.
A 45-year-old market gardener working in Savoie has just been sentenced by the Paris Criminal Court to a fine of 450 euros corresponding to a 90-day fine of 5 euros. This fine can be transformed into days in prison if the farmer fails to pay the amount due.
The Savoyard activist was being prosecuted for having committed violence against police officers during a demonstration in the capital.
The events took place on December 5, 2024, when around a hundred farmers from the agricultural union Confédération Paysanne had taken over by surprise the square in front of the Parisian monument where the European Grain Trade Exchange was held, which has brought together agri-food market operators since the 1960s.
Arriving on site, the police were ordered to arrest demonstrators suspected of having attacked a security agent at the Grand Palais and damaged an event stand.
“We were shot by the police when we were leaving,” explained the farmer, a 45-year-old market gardener in Savoie, convicted of having bitten the hand of a police officer and of opposing his arrest.
“I had his hand on my mouth, I was choking. With the stress, the fear, I lost my composure, I bit his thumb, but it was a survival instinct”he pleaded, apologizing to the official.
The farmer was, however, acquitted of the acts of damage in the Grand Palais.
At his side during the hearing: a farmer from Seine-et-Marne accused of having wanted to strangle a police officer and of having struggled during his arrest. She said she didn’t have any “no memory”, evoking a “loss of consciousness”.
“I had an anxiety attack, faced with this mass of over-armed, over-protected agents”she said.
But she assured that she did not “never wanted to strangle anyone.” “I possibly tried to grab onto his vest in the stampede,” the farmer defended herself.
She was prescribed seven days of ITT for the injuries sustained during her arrest: “I had never seen such violence, especially in an ultra-peaceful demonstration.”
She was also fined 450 euros. The two farmers will also have to pay damages totaling 900 euros to the three police officers who became civil parties.
During the hearing, the public prosecutor acknowledged that the maintenance of order had been “muscular and violent” and that the police action was probably not appropriate.
