Feb. 26
� MONTPELLIER (Reuters) - A court Thursday ordered radical French farmer Jose Bove to spend 10 months in prison for damaging fields of genetically modified (GM) crops in his battle against junk food and globalization.
The order follows November's failed appeal by Bove against an original 14-month sentence.
Only a presidential pardon can now prevent Bove, a media-savvy activist with a trademark walrus mustache, from spending a term behind bars. He spent six weeks in prison last year for smashing up a McDonald's hamburger restaurant.
The ruling by the court in the southern city of Montpellier concerns damage done to trial fields of GM rice and maize in 1998 and 1999. Despite the four-month reprieve, Bove slammed the decision.
"This shows judicial powers have decided to follow the economic logic of those who want to impose GMO (genetically modified organisms)," he told reporters in Paris at an agricultural fair, on learning of the judgment .
"We are going to continue the fight against multinationals. It's unacceptable that GMO firms impose products on citizens that they do not want," he added.
He also called on French President Jacques Chirac "to assume his responsibility" for his case, a reference to the president's power to grant a pardon. So far, Chirac has given no signal that he would use his power of pardon for Bove.
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20030226_204.html
