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From March Ist to March 28th 2004, the trial of 11 Breton militants was held before the Paris special court of assizes.
These people will be judged for their presumed responsibility in 17 attacks perpetrated in Brittany between 1993 and 2000.
This trial took take place after more than 4 years of provisional detention for one of the six accused and nearly
four years for four others, all of whom are still in provisional detention. The conditions in which these men
were imprisoned in Paris jails - tougher prison regime due to the status of detainee under reinforced watch, detention of a militant against the opinion of the prosecution, detention of two other detainees who were seriously ill, have led citizens associations, artists, political, union and humanitarian organisations, to denounce this situation.
In Brittany, the wave of solidarity keeps on growing, and several observers from international organisations
attended the trial where militants appear before a special jurisdiction that, clearly, will judge them more for
their political beliefs than for what they allegedly did.
While some of the accused admitted involvement in ARB activities all denied having any involvement
in the bombing of Mc Donald's in Quévert, where a lady was killed. The prosecution case was long on
rhetoric and short on evidence. In the closing speech of the prosecution (before defence counsels and
defendants speak) they demanded the following for the various individuals.
1. Christian Georgeault : An 18 year jail sentence of which he will have to serve at least a 10 year minimum mandatory before being eligible for release. He admitted being involved in some attacks, but not Quévert.
2. Gaël Roblin : 15 years, with 10 years minimum mandatory sentence
3. Paskal Laizé, 12 years, 8 years minimum mandatory sentence
4. Stéphane Philippe, 10 years, 6 years of minimum mandatory sentence
5 Arno Vannier, 8 years, 4 years of minimum mandatory sentence He already served some time and was released. If sentence is confirmed he will be jailed immediately.
6. Alain Solé, 6 years, no mandatory sentence due to poor health. As he already served much more than 4 years, he could be released quite soon if sentence is confirmed as such.
7. Philippe Jaumouillé, 5 years (he already served a few months, and was released)
8. Solenn Georgeault, Yann S., Paskal Scattolin, Jérôme Bouthier: nothing was demanded. The Prosecutor also apologised to Jérôme, saying he was "sorry that Jérôme should be in this situation". It's high time the Prosecutor realized that Jérôme bas been in jail for nearly 2 and a half years.
The verdict may be delivered by the time you read this. At the time of going to press the defence case bas yet to be heard.
Let's wait for the verdict and possible appeals.... Let's hope....
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Published in CARN - Mae 2004
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