EXCERPTS: In a judgement expected to send a chill through companies growing genetically modified (GM) crops in Europe and bolden their opponents, a French court Friday was cited as acquitting 49 activists who destroyed GM plants after ruling their actions were justified.

Jean-Emile Sanchez, was quoted as calling the verdict "a huge victory for the anti-GM side" and said the judgement would form an important legal precedent.
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Activists' destruction of GM crops was justified: French court
Agence France Presse, December 9, 2005
[via agnet]

ORLEANS, France - In a judgement expected to send a chill through companies growing genetically modified (GM) crops in Europe and bolden their opponents, a French court Friday was cited as acquitting 49 activists who destroyed GM plants after ruling their actions were justified.

The story says that the court in the central city of Orleans dismissed the criminal charges of organised vandalism against the 49, who had uprooted GM maize in the region planted by the US biotechnology group Monsanto in two incidents, one last year and the other in 2005.

The court was quoted as saying, "The defendants have shown proof that they committed an infraction of voluntary vandalism in a group to respond to a situation of necessity," and that situation of necessity "resulted from the unbridled distribution of modified genes that constitutes a clear and present danger for the well-being of others, in the sense that it could be the source of contamination and unwanted pollution."

The court, however, upheld the civil complaint against the 49, ordering them to pay a total of 6,000 euros (7,000 dollars) to Monsanto in damages and interest -- although that sum was a small fraction of the 398,000 euros the US company had been seeking.

One of the activists, Jean-Emile Sanchez, was quoted as calling the verdict "a huge victory for the anti-GM side" and said the judgement would form an important legal precedent.