Bove, as a repeat offender, faces a 10-year prison term and EUR150,000 fine... The eight other defendants each face five years in prison and a EUR75,000 fine. The trial ends Wednesday.
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Militant French Farmer On Trial For Destroying GMO Crop
Agence France Press, 20 September 2005
http://www.cattlenetwork.com/content.asp?contentid=9676

TOULOUSE, France (AP)--France's best-known farmer, Jose Bove, was greeted by applause Tuesday as he and eight others entered a courthouse to stand trial for ripping up a field of genetically modified corn.

Bove and the other defendants, including Green Party lawmaker Noel Mamere, face prison terms and fines if convicted of uprooting a crop in July 2004 that belonged to U.S. seed company which is a subsidiary of E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. (DD).

Dozens of supporters, some in masks, greeted the defendants at the courthouse in the southern city of Toulouse, vowing to continue their mission.

Bove, as a repeat offender, faces a 10-year prison term and EUR150,000 fine. The mustachioed sheep farmer served just over a month in prison in 2003 for destroying a field of GMO corn and rice crops. He is most famous for ransacking a McDonald's (MCD) restaurant in 1999 that was under construction in southern France.

The eight other defendants each face five years in prison and a EUR75,000 fine. The trial ends Wednesday.

The crop they attacked in the town of Menville belonged to Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., based in Johnston, Iowa. At the time Bove called it an act of "civil disobedience" and said others would follow.