A court in southern France has ordered anti-globalisation militant Jose Bové to pay a €3,000 fine for destroying a field of genetically modified crops in April 2000.
Bové's eight co-defendants were each ordered to pay fines of €400 for their role in ruining two hectares of experimental rape seed crops during a protest in the southern town of Gaudies.
Some 200 people took part in the demonstration, aimed at alerting the public to what activists say are the risks of contamination posed by GM crops, but only nine were taken to court.
Bové, who did not appear in the Foix court for the reading of the verdict, defended his action, saying by telephone that it had "contributed to raising awareness among European states" about the risks of GM crops.
He shot to fame when he and a group of other farmers used tractors to tear apart a McDonald's outlet under construction in the southern town of Millau in 1999. Bové, the leader of the Confederation Paysanne farmers' union, was jailed on June 19th and released on August 1st after serving about half of his three-month sentence.
Successive courts rejected Bové's argument that he was making a legitimate protest against junk food and punitive US tariffs on French cheeses.
According to today's ruling, Bové must pay 30 euros a day for 100 days. If he fails to comply, he will automatically be jailed for 50 days, half the number of days he is to be fined.
He has been tried on two other occasions for destroying genetically modified crops in southern France, earning suspended sentences totalling 14 months.
AFP