A French appeals court on Tuesday increases the sentence against a farmer who has made a point of helping migrants cross the border from Italy, but stops short of jailing him.
The court in Aix-en-Provence gives activist Cedric Herrou a four-month suspended sentence — half the length the prosecutor had asked for, but more than his initial sentence.
“This is a warning sentence,” the court’s senior judge tells him.
Herrou is unrepentant as he emerges from court, where around 30 activists and supporters are on hand to support him. “They’ll just have to put me in prison, it’ll be simpler,” he says.
Herrou, an organic olive farmer, is a leading figure in Roya Citoyenne, an association dedicated to helping migrants. Last month he was arrested and charged as he accompanied 156 migrants to Marseille to help them file their asylum requests.
Since the beginning of 2017, more than 117,000 people have made the perilous Mediterranean crossing into Europe from north Africa — more than 96,000 of them arriving in Italy.
— AFP
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