French 'anarchist cell' goes on trial for alleged TGV rail sabotage

Members of an alleged anarchist organisation have gone on trial accused of attempting to sabotage part of France’s high-speed rail network a decade ago.

Investigators say the Tarnac group deliberately placed steel rods on overhead power cables on three TGV lines.

The eight accused, who deny the charge, claim politicians manipulated the police and legal system to portray them as dangerous, ultra-left anarchists with terrorist links.

Though high-profile in 2008, the prosecution’s case has slowly receded over the last 10 years, reportedly owing to a lack of evidence. On Tuesday the most serious offence that group members faced was of damaging public property and lesser charges of violent protests and refusing to give a DNA sample.

Defence lawyers claim politicians put pressure on investigators, some of whom allegedly infiltrated the group, to come up with information confirming it was terrorist-linked, in order to show they were being tough on crime. They say it was a “political, police, legal and media fiction”.

The prosecution says reports from undercover agents inside the Tarnac group suggested it had crossed the line from ideas of anarchy to actual sabotage.

The group, named after the village of the same name in the Corrèze, in south-west France, where it was formed, was made up of mostly well-educated young people from comfortable backgrounds who held leftwing views. A dozen of them set up a rural commune to live a simpler life under the guidance of Julien Coupat, a far-left intellectual from a wealthy family, now 43 and working as a theatre troupe director.

Source: theguardian