The Paris Criminal Court on Friday released nine members of the ultra-right Barjols group, condemning three others for terrorist criminal association to sentences of one to three years and a fourth to a suspended sentence for illegal possession of a weapon.
The court considered that there were indeed “preparatory acts” in connection with a plan to assassinate President Emmanuel Macron in 2018 for three defendants. On the other hand, the court concluded that it could not convict the other defendants for the designs of “violent action” targeting elected officials, mosques and migrants for which they were accused.
They were a total of thirteen members of the far-right group to answer before the Paris Criminal Court for association of terrorist criminals. They were accused of having planned an attack against Emmanuel Macron during a trip by the Head of State to eastern France in November 2018 as well as actions against migrants.
“It is not because we say things that we will do them”
At the beginning of February, the prosecutor had requested six firm prison sentences against the members, the heaviest of 5 years of imprisonment against Jean-Pierre Bouyer, for his role considered “driving” in the project of assassination of Emmanuel Macron. She had admitted that their plans for violent action were “not all successful”, but had considered their threat “very real”.
The defense had denounced a “farce”, a “judicial fiasco” or a “journey into absurdity” which would have dangerously extended the notion of terrorism by applying it to “13 angry men” whose only common denominator would be “social misery » and membership of the « yellow vests », in full bloom when this affair broke out. “It is not because we say things that we are going to do them”, then defended one of the accused.