PARIS - French President Jacques Chirac has cut four months
off a 10-month prison sentence anti-globalisation leader Jose Bove is serving
as part of the head of state's traditional clemency decree for Bastille Day,
Chirac's office and the justice ministry said Thursday.
About 2,000 people demonstrate for the release from prison of farmers union leader Jose Bove, in Millau, southern France, Saturday, June 28, 2003. Bove was taken into custody on June 22 to begin a ten-month sentence for destroying genetically modified crops. (AP Photo/Bob Edme)
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The shortened sentence will be applied to Bove's term from next Wednesday,
two days after the national holiday celebrating the French Revolution of 1789,
which falls on July 14 every year.
Bove, the 50-year-old leader of France's farmers' union who gained
worldwide notoriety for his actions against McDonald's restaurants,
genetically modified crops and multinational corporations, was taken away on
June 22 in a spectacular police raid on his home to serve his current sentence.
The prison term was the accumulation of two convictions confirmed after
Bove exhausted the appeals process six months ago.
He was put behind bars for four months for destroying a stock of
genetically modified seeds at a site in France owned by Swiss company Novartis
in 1998, and for another six months for ruining genetically modified rice
plants at a laboratory in Montpellier in 1999.
Unionists and anti-globalisation protesters have held frequent
demonstrations across France to demand his release.
His supporters and lawyers also pressured Chirac to give him a total pardon
for Bastille Day.
Chirac, who every Bastille Day traditionally signs a partial reduction of
prison sentences for most of those behind bars in France, decided to lop two
months off terms for all prisoners except those convicted of terrorism,
paedophilia, crimes against humanity, drug felonies, assaulting police
officers, or of fatal driving offences.
Bove will also get an additional two months' reduction as an individual
clemency from the president, Chirac's office said.
With good behavior and the possibility of conditional release, Bove - who
could now expect to finish his sentence in December - may see his
incarceration shortened yet further, depending on the decision of a judge that
supervises prison terms.
Copyright 2003 AFP
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