Paris Air Show: Four indicted after aborted action plan

"War on War" . For several weeks, a coalition of numerous environmental, feminist and pro-Palestinian organizations had called for mobilization against the 55th edition of the Paris Air Show, which took place from June 16 to 22. Earth Uprisings, Palestine Emergency and Stop Arming Israel, gathered under the banner "War on War" , then contested the presence at this major aeronautical gathering of "Israeli stands but also of numerous firms complicit in genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity throughout the world", particularly in Gaza . An aborted protest: this Monday, June 23, the Paris prosecutor's office indicated that four people had been arrested and charged in the investigation into a planned action against the show.

To prevent disruption to the rally, six people were arrested on Friday and another on Saturday. As a result, three of them " were charged with criminal conspiracy" and a fourth "with possession of category B and C ammunition, six boxes of cartridges having been discovered at her home," the prosecutor's office announced today. The latter was also placed under assisted witness status for criminal conspiracy, it was added. All were placed under judicial supervision "with a ban on owning or carrying a weapon, and for two of them, a ban on going to airports" and "on participating in a demonstration," according to the prosecutor's office.

The fifth was placed under assisted witness status, and the remaining two "were released without prosecution after their police custody," the public prosecutor said. While no details were provided on the nature of the planned action against the Paris Air Show, the prosecutor's office said it had opened a judicial investigation on Sunday for "participation in a criminal conspiracy with a view to committing the crime of obstructing the movement of an aircraft."

An investigation, entrusted to the criminal brigade, was opened after "a report from the police headquarters indicating that several groups had gathered together with the aim of disrupting the Paris Air Show," the prosecutor's office reported. "Surveillance confirmed the gathering of suspected individuals and the presence of a large gas cylinder," it added. "A helium cylinder and nearly 200 balloons" were found during searches.

The latest arrest took place Saturday in the "anti-war" village, near the Bourse du Travail in Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis), according to a spokesperson for Urgence Palestine. "We were [...] preparing for the demonstration, Brav-M entered and besieged us, they searched to take balloons, banners," said the spokesperson, before the start of a demonstration Saturday "against the war economy" and "the business of death." "This is a continuation of the intimidation we are experiencing. We have the threat of dissolution hanging over our heads," he added.

Not all of the coalition's actions failed, however: a demonstration on Saturday, June 21, brought together "more than 4,000" people, according to the organizers, and 1,400 according to the police headquarters. Several stands of Israeli arms companies had also been closed by decision of the French government, in light of the situation in Gaza.