NOTE: This is a great victory for independent science as well as a vindication of the work of Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini. Seralini has worked tirelessly to expose the health hazards of Monsanto's GM maize varieties and of Roundup - and the inadequacies of the EU regulatory system for GMOs and pesticides.

For more about the court case, see
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12715
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GMOs - The AFBV convicted of defamation against G.-E. Séralini
by Christopher HAZEL, January 2011

On Tuesday 18 January, the Paris court handed down its deliberations in the trial that pitted Gilles-Eric Séralini, a researcher in molecular biology at the University of Caen and Chairman of the Scientific Council CRIIGEN [1], against the French Association for Plant Biotechnology (AFBV), chaired by Marc Fellous. The court sentenced the AFBV to a fine on probation of 1000 euros, one euro in damages (which had been requested by the plaintiff) and 4000 euros in court costs.

Corinne Lepage, President of CRIIGEN, contacted by telephone by Inf'OGM, was delighted with this victory, especially as she admits she was not optimistic after leaving the hearing which was held November 23, 2011. "People can no longer say anything they like about whistleblowers [with impunity]," said she. And she adds: "For the first time a whistleblower is not on the defensive but on the offensive."

G.-E. Séralini had attacked the association and its president in court, holding that they had defamed his research that called into question the safety of several transgenic maize varieties of Monsanto [2]. Indeed, on several occasions AFBV had sought to discredit the work of GE Séralini.”¨”¨1: http://www.criigen.org/”¨”¨2: http://www.infogm.org/spip.php?article4605