the prosecution is appealing their conviction

The Paris prosecutor’s office is appealing after the conviction of four former RTE employees suspected of sabotage, France Inter learned Thursday, April 13 from a source close to the case, confirmed by defense lawyers.

These four former employees of the manager of the high voltage lines – aged 31 to 35 – were sentenced on March 28 in Paris to fines – without registration in the criminal record – for interventions on the electricity network during a social conflict in the summer of 2022. A less severe sentence than that required by the prosecution.

Employees placed in police custody on the premises of the DGSI

An investigation was then opened after a complaint from RTE, which denounced an act of “maliciousness”. The employees had been placed in police custody in October in the premises of the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI), which had provoked the wrath of the CGT and the offending employees. The latter had defended themselves by evoking a “symbolic” and “traditional” militant action during a social conflict.

They were finally tried on February 28 for “obstructing the operation of an automated data processing system”, “modifying data in such a system” and “fraudulent introduction of data into such a system”. A month after the hearing, on March 28, the four defendants had been found guilty of “obstructing the operation of an automated data processing system”, but released for the “modification” of such a system and the “fraudulent introduction of data”.