Attack of Sos Méditerranée in Marseille: up to a year in prison against members of Génération ident

Of the 22 defendants, seven are identities from Occitania. Up to a year in prison had been requested by the prosecutor on Monday for this violence in meetings. At the end of ten days of hearing, the judicial court of Marseille sentenced this Thursday, October 20 to prison terms the 23 members of the commando of the far-right small group Génération identitaire, a group which had been dissolved by the Ministry of the Interior in 2021, for the attack on the premises of the Sos Méditerranée association. One was sentenced to a year in prison, a second to six months, the others to suspended sentences. A former FN candidate condemned In particular Peter Sterligov, executive of the technical services of Beaucaire and FN candidate defeated in the departmental elections in Nîmes (in 2015) then Châteaurenard (in 2021). He received an 8-month suspended prison sentence and a 3-year ban on staying in Marseille. The court, in its judgment, retains against him “the persistence of criminal behavior demonstrated by his recent conviction by the Paris Court of Appeal for acts subsequently committed”. Either the occupation of the Caf de Bobigny. The facts date back to October 5, 2018 when this “youth” branch of the Identity Block decided on a commando action against the NGO which rescues refugees in the Mediterranean Sea. They entered the premises and threatened the volunteers to leave the building. The victims explained to the hearing the pressures, jostling, blows, grabs and psychological trauma suffered. The 23 implicated, seven of whom are from Occitania (Toulouse, Montpellier, Béziers and Beaucaire) maintained that they did not use violence and continued to accuse Sos Méditerranée without anyone apologizing. “It is violence that is condemned” “The hearing was useful in establishing the truth: the sequence was violent on several occasions, three of the victims were thrown from the premises, some thought of an attack and an employee s found herself with about fifteen attackers with great pressure, there was still up to 10 days of total incapacity for work, there is an emotional shock still very present” indicates Me François de Cambiaire, the lawyer for the civil parties. “This very firm judgment is a strong message sent by justice and which appeases the civil parties, it was not a political action, it is violence which is condemned”. At the opening of the debates on October 10, a third of the respondents were there and only one followed the debates to the end. What anger the prosecution which, Monday, castigated “a punch action”, according to 20 Minutes . In his submissions, the prosecutor asked for between four months and a year in prison against eleven of them, some of whom did not, in addition, respect their judicial control. One of the defendants, who did not come, once again claimed the action on social networks…. Moral prejudice During the debates, the president of Sos Méditerranée, François Thomas, came to remind the bars the only mission of the association, that of rescue at sea, once again debunking the erroneous theory of the call for air: the presence of NGOs would encourage the departure of migrants. When there is no boat in the area, applications for exile are just as important, he recalled. The court awarded significant compensation to the association, including €22,000 for non-pecuniary damage.