Three men were convicted by an anti-terror court in France late Friday (February 17) over a plot to attack President Emmanuel Macron in 2018. The men were part of a Facebook group called the “Barjols” and were convicted of conspiracy to commit a terrorist act after the court heard how they discussed using a ceramic knife to stab Macron at a World War I commemoration, according to a report by the news agency AFP. The accused are expected to file appeals.
Barjols was formed in 2017 in the aftermath of several deadly attacks in France, including one at the Charlie Hebdo magazine and the Bataclan concert hall in Paris.
Jean-Pierre Bouyer, a former mechanic, was handed the longest sentence of four years in prison, with one year suspended, which is well below the maximum jail term of 10 years for the offence. Bouyer, 66, was arrested on November 6, 2018, with three others in the eastern Moselle region. The AFP report said that cops found a commando-style knife and an army vest in his car as well as three firearms at his home.
Two other men arrested with the 66-year-old were handed shorter prison sentences, while nine co-defendants and fellow members of the Barjols were cleared. A 13th member was given a suspended sentence for illegally possessing a firearm.
The chief prosecutor called the Barjols an “incubator of violent action” when she summed up her arguments against the 13 defendants, almost all of whom had no criminal record. Their ideas could seem “eccentric” but the “threat was real”, she said.
Since the beginning of the trial last month, the anti-terror court heard details of the group’s alcohol-fuelled meetings, their racist online discussions of migration, their fear of a civil war, and their hatred of President Emmanuel Macron. The case also raised questions about the point at which online conspiracies and violent fantasies become criminal, with defence lawyers claiming the prosecution lacked evidence of any real desire to act, the news agency reported.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Jean-Pierre Bouyer’s lawyer Olivia Ronen said she regretted that the judges did not recognise the case was blown out of proportion and there was no hard evidence to convict.
“The court ended up a bit in the middle of the road,” fellow defence lawyer Francois Ormillien said, highlighting the guilty verdicts but “extremely light” sentences.
(With inputs from agencies)
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