Jail for EDF Greenpeace spies

26 years ago the French government committed an act of terrorism against Greenpeace. An operation sanctioned by the French Government to destroy the original Rainbow Warrior which led to death of photographer Fernando Pereira.

The Guardian reports that French state owned (well 85% owned) energy company EDF was fined €1.5m and had an executive director sentenced to three years in prison on Wednesday, on charges of spying on Greenpeace.

A court in Nanterre sentenced the second in command of nuclear safety, Pierre-Paul François, to three years' imprisonment, with 30 month suspended.  The head of nuclear safety, Pascal Durieux, three years' imprisonment, two years suspended and a €10,000 fine for commissioning the spying operation.

The company has also been ordered to pay €500,000 in damages to Greenpeace.

The judge also handed down a guilty verdict in the case of Thierry Lorho, the head of Kargus, the company employed by EDF to hack into the computers of Greenpeace. He has been sentenced to three years in jail, with two suspended and a €4,000 fine.


In 2006, EDF hired a private detective agency called Kargus Consultants, run by a former member of the French secret services, to find out more about Greenpeace France's intentions and its plans to block new nuclear in the UK. The agency hacked the computer of Yannick Jadot, Greenpeace's then campaigns director, taking 1,400 documents from his computer.

An EDF official had no immediate comment. During the trial, EDF said that it was the victim of overzealous efforts to find out what Greenpeace was doing and the company was unaware anyone would hack into a computer at Greenpeace.
 

The case has sparked outrage among anti-nuclear campaigners in France whose secret services were behind the bombing of the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior 26 years ago. Moreover, safety has become a greater concern in France since Japan's Fukushima atomic disaster.

Speaking from alongside the new Rainbow Warrior, currently on its maiden voyage and docked in London, Greenpeace UK's executive director, John Sauven, said: "The evidence presented at the trial showed that the espionage undertaken by EDF in its efforts to discredit Greenpeace was both extensive and totally illegal. The company should now give a full account of the spying operation it mounted against its critics. As one of the six companies with a monopoly over electricity supply in this country and a major sponsor of the Olympics, EDF has a duty to come clean. The length of the sentences handed down shows just how seriously the judge views what the French state owned company did."

Thse sentences are totally justifiable. Perhaps it is time for France to bring to justice all of those involved in the death of Pereira. I don't agree with all of Greenpeace's actions but the espionage conducted by EDF was an tter disgrace.

On the subject of espionage I look forward to many News International employees becoming guests of Her Majesty in the near future.

Bless me father, for I have eco-sinned

Are you wracked by guilt because you have forgotten to recycle or to plant enough trees to offset your carbon footprint? If you are attending the Waveney Greenpeace fair this weekend then spiritual aid will be at hand. Dom Anthony Sutch, (a Benedictine monk and former head of Downside school, one of England’s most prestigious boarding schools, who is now a parish priest in Suffolk) will be present to hear all your eco-confessions.

Apparently he will be dressed in a chasuble made from recycled curtains. The confessional will be constructed of recycled doors. Father Sutch said “It is not, I hope, blasphemous to do this. I do not think it is. It is just an attempt to make people conscious of the way they live. The Church is aware of green issues and of how aware we have to be of how we treat the environment. I know the Pope has now set up his own airline, but I am told the Vatican will be planting trees every time it flies. I do think the way we treat our environment is important. There is a huge amount of greed in the West. We have to be aware of the consequences of how we live.”

Rupert Read, a local Green councillor will be standing by to offer post-confessional advice. “It is a bit of a laugh but there is a serious underlying point. By doing this we hope people will think a bit more about what they might be doing to make their world a better place. I imagine people will be confessing to things like, ‘I have bought a new car even though I didn't need one’, or ‘I flew to Australia last year’. I have come up with some penances, such as making a donation to a green charity or telling ten other people what you have done.”

It’s all harmless stuf - unless of course Dom Sutch is a fire and brimstone type priest (Screaming Dom Sutch?) - then it will be hair shirts (and other cilices) all round. I wonder what his bishop thinks...