Lawyer for 25-year-old says legal proceedings ‘verged on the ridiculous’ after two people appear in court following clashes with police at climate protest

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A court in Paris has fined a woman €1,000 ($1,060) for refusing to have her fingerprints taken at a rally where clashes erupted between protesters and security forces ahead of a UN climate summit.

The lawyer for the 25-year-old woman said legal proceedings against her “verged on the ridiculous”, pointing out that out of the hundreds arrested at the demonstration only two people had appeared before the court.

Peaceful Paris climate gathering descends into clashes with police Read more

Riot police fired teargas at far-left activists and arrested more than 300 people after a group of protesters pelted officers with bottles and candles taken from a tribute to the victims of the Paris attacks.

The demonstrations disrupted a largely peaceful rally that saw thousands of people form a human chain across the French capital to urge world leaders to seal an ambitious pact to stop global warming.

French police have banned demonstrations on Paris’ prestigious Champs Élysées avenue and near the venue for the conference at Le Bourget north of the capital during the two-week climate talks.

The government introduced a state of emergency following a coordinated onslaught by gunmen and suicide bombers which killed 130 people in November, and parliament has given the green light to prolong the extraordinary set of security measures for three months.

In a second fast-tracked case, a 28-year-old man was sentenced to three months in jail for throwing a glass bottle at a police officer, wounding his lip slightly, during the clashes in central Paris’s place de la République.

The young man, who had been drinking, admitted he threw a metal can but said it was aimed at no one in particular.

His lawyer argued he had not come to the square to fight, pointing out that he was dressed in brightly coloured clothes and carrying a rucksack in contrast to the black-clad, hooded protesters.

The man and the woman were also found guilty of ignoring a police order to disperse, but both said they had not heard it.

Prosecutors had called for harsher sentences for the pair. They suggested a five-month suspended sentence for the woman while the young man had faced eight months immediate imprisonment, four of which would form part of a suspended sentence.

Two others remain in custody while five more have been released.