FRANCE-ENVIRONMENT-JUSTICE-TRIAL-WATER-DEMO

Defendant and spokesman for the "Bassines non merci" collective Julien Le Guet (C) stands next to activists of French environmental activists group "Les Soulevements de la Terre" (Uprisings of the Earth) (SLT) Nicolas Beauvillain (L) and Benoit Feuillu (R) after a trial verdict, outside the Criminal Court in Niort, western France, on January 17, 2023. Three activists Julien Le Guet, Joan Monga, aka Basile Dutertre, and Nicolas Garrigues, aka Benoit Feuillu, opposing "basins", controversial irrigation reservoirs, have been sentenced on January 17, 2023, from 6 to 12 months of suspended prison sentence for the organising of banned protests in Sainte-Soline, in which violent clashes with authorities occured. (Photo by PHILIPPE LOPEZ / AFP) (Photo by PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP via Getty Images)