Farmer bags 3,193 euros fine for aiding migrants

A Nice Court on Friday handed down a suspended fine of 3,000 euros (3,193 dollars) to a farmer from southern France who had sought to aid migrants escape.

Cedric Herrou, was convicted of picking up illegal immigrants on the Italian side of the border, the Agence France-Presse news agency reported.

The court however cleared him of related charges of harbouring illegal immigrants and aiding their travel.

Herrou’s lawyer Zia Oloumi, speaking to a television station on the steps of the courthouse, said that the court had recognised “that Mr Herrou’s action was taken for purely humanitarian purposes.”

Herrou has been a vocal critic of France’s migration policies, particularly its efforts to prevent undocumented people crossing from Italy.

Recent years have seen beefed-up security measures at the border.

Many of those making the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean from Africa to Italy seek to continue onwards to
France or other northern European countries.