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José Bové, GM "rebel", taken to jail
Eighty gendarmes swooped on France's anti-globalisation figurehead, José Bové, at his home yesterday, arresting him and taking him by helicopter to a nearby prison where he is to serve 10 months for destroying genetically modified crops.
Eighty?
The peasants' rights campaigner and sheep farmer had been hoping for a presidential pardon from Jacques Chirac, but found none forthcoming. Dominique Perben, the justice minister, said: "If Mr Bové finds himself today in this situation, it is because of the decisions he himself made."
| That's Francaise for "tough shit." |
Mr Bové and a group of supporters ransacked a partly-built McDonald's fast food restaurant in Millau, near the farm on which he raises ewes to make Roquefort cheese, in 1999. He was sentenced to three months for that offence and served six weeks in prison in 2002. The current sentence, to be served in Villeneuve-les-Maguelone prison near Montpellier, includes one six-month and one four-month term imposed for destroying a field of GM rice in June 1999 and GM maize in April 2000. His lawyer, François Roux, complained yesterday about the gendarmes' attitude to his client. "They broke down the door and shattered a window, despite the fact that he was alone and of course offered no resistance. The minimum would have been to knock on the door before entering."
Why 80 police to drag this guy to jug? Not that I'm complaining about the end-result.
Posted by: Steve White 2003-06-23 |
