Six months suspended prison sentence, 140,000 euros fine and the restoration of the premises were required on Monday in the Ajaccio court against the entrepreneur Patrick Rocca, accused of having destroyed Hermann’s tortoises and their habitat on a construction site in Grosseto-Pugna, in Corse-du-Sud. Corsica and the Var are the last refuges of Hermann’s tortoise, the only land tortoise in mainland France, classified as vulnerable on the national red list of threatened species and protected at international, European and French level.
A five-year suspended management ban was also requested against the promoter, one of the largest employers in Corsica with 1,400 employees in his group, including a thousand on the island. The one who counts13 convictions on his criminal record“, according to the president of the court, was prosecuted for mutilation and unauthorized destruction of a protected animal species, in this case Hermann’s tortoises, as well as for the alteration and destruction of their habitat, between December 2019 and March 2020, on a construction site of 162 housing units, south of the Gulf of Ajaccio. The Fortimmo company, of which Mr. Rocca is the manager, is also being prosecuted for unauthorized interference with the conservation of the natural habitat of a protected species. A fine of 300,000 euros was also requested against the company, as well as its suspension of activity for one year, the restoration of the premises within 12 months and the exclusion of the company from public contracts for five year.
A lack of evidence?
On December 9, 2019, “six corpses of Hermann’s tortoises and one fatally blessée” were discovered on the spot by agents of the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB). According to these officers, 3.5 hectares of turtle habitat have beenaltered“and 2.8 hectares”destroyed“. Despite the OFB’s request, the work continued and on December 14, two additional corpses and a “dying turtle“Were found, detailed the president.
For the civil party, Me Martin Tomasi, lawyer for the environmental defense association U Levante, pleaded “rehabilitation“places or”in the alternative, 500,000 euros in compensation for the Statet” as well as 30,000 euros for moral damage inflicted on the association. “I thought I had followed all the procedures“, assured at the helm Patrick Rocca, acknowledging the destruction of the turtles but ensuring that he had not had”no will to push through“. The two defense lawyers, Me Philippe Gatti and Me Jean-Marc Fevrier, argued nullities justifying, according to them, the cancellation of the procedure. They then pleaded for their client’s release, arguing that “lack of evidenceThe judgment was reserved for January 24.
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