“This is not the trial of my actions, but a political trial”: several months of suspended prison sentence required against anti-A 69 tried for a series of offenses

“This is not the trial of my actions, but a political trial,” insists this anti-A 69 activist on trial before the Castres criminal court for a series of offenses. Because this 22-year-old from Aveyron was involved in all the actions against the construction site of this highway between Castres and Toulouse. She was prosecuted for having disrupted the passage of the Tour de France to Palleville in July 2022, for damage to the Lavaur site of Pierre Fabre Laboratories in February 2023, for clinging to construction equipment in Puylaurens in September 2023, and especially for intimidation against a gendarme on August 31 while she was in a tree on a ZAD in Saïx.

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The one who says she is “anxious about global warming”, earning her several stays in a psychiatric hospital, did not hesitate to set fire to the cabin in which she was perched after having sprayed it with an flammable product which flowed on the military just below and which could also have caught fire. “It’s a shame that this gendarme filed a complaint against me for three drops of white spirit,” argues the activist who, convinced that she was within her rights to defend her cause, did not hesitate to take the court to high.

“Witnesses who saw nothing”

The hearing even turned into an anti-A69 forum and against police violence while one of his 22-year-old comrades was being prosecuted for having punched a gendarme who tried to dislodge him from another tree this same August 31 during the evacuation of the ZAD. Their lawyer, who called for release in the name of “freedom of expression” and “the state of necessity”, even called three witnesses: a member of the Human Rights League, a psychologist and an elected official from Teulat, opposed to the highway.

Three “witnesses” who were not present during the events and who “did not see anything”, underlines the lawyer for the gendarmes whose “lives were put in danger” by the actions of the defendants. “The police are there to protect the population and protect you too. You defend the trees but also respect human life,” she pleaded.

“This has nothing to do with freedom of expression”

“Whatever their motivations, the offenses noted were committed and they have nothing to do with freedom of expression,” argued prosecutor Elodie Buguel who requested 7 months suspended prison sentence against the young woman and 4 months suspended sentence for the young man after recalling that “in a state of law there are elements made available to express his ideas”.

The court reserved its decision until January 28.