The Times - UK (2022-02-23)

the times | Wednesday February 23 2022 33

Wo r l d

The French government is determined
to reactivate a police operation to infil-
trate animal rights and environmental
activists after a court ordered it to stop.
Ministers say the undercover work was
“justified”.
Judges decided earlier this month
that the Gendarmerie, which enforces
the law in rural areas, had acted illegal-
ly when it permitted its “Demeter unit”
to keep activists under surveillance.
The operation, named after the
Greek goddess of the harvest, was set
up two years ago in partnership with
the main farmers’ union, FNSEA, os-

Ministers fight to keep spying on eco-activists

France
Charles Bremner Paris

tensibly to fight theft and vandalism.

However, it was also ordered to operate

against “actions of an ideological

nature... running from simple symbol-

ic denigration to hard actions”, accord-

ing to the interior ministry.

Animal and environmental cam-

paigners took the Gendarmerie to

court, arguing that the unit hounded

campaigners protesting against the

mistreatment of animals and the use of

pesticides and other toxic products.

They alleged that officers kept activ-

ists under surveillance, attended meet-

ings and intimidated members.

A court was told that the government

had stated that the targets of the unit

included “actions led by anti-speciesist

groups against hunters, who are closely

linked to the agricultural world”. The

administrative court ruled that the

ministry had “committed a legal error”

in giving the unit a mandate to act

against activists simply because they

protested against fur farming, game

shooting “and other activities”.

Brigitte Gothière, the co-founder of

L214, the animal defence group that led

the legal action, welcomed the court’s

decision, saying the judgment would

“restore our freedom of speech”. She

added that the operation amounted to

“an attempt to criminalise legitimate

movements” against intensive farming.

Gothière said the group would fight

attempts to reinstate the surveillance.

The L214 group, which has released

videos of cruelty in slaughter houses,

said the police operation hampered

their efforts to document abuse.

However, Gérald Darmanin, the in-

terior minister, and Julien Denormand-

ie, the farming minister, said the unit’s

actions were justified because it target-

ed crime and had stemmed thefts by

gangs of expensive farm equipment.

It had also enabled police to prose-

cute activists who had burnt down

buildings and committed vandalism,

they said.

The farmers’ union welcomed the

government’s effort to keep the opera-

tion going. Christiane Lambert, the

FNSEA chief, said farmers needed pro-

tection from violent militants. “I have

been called a ‘throat slitter’, ” she said.

“There’s a real escalation. It’s not about

ideology but the destructive actions

that stem from it.” Farmers feared for

their lives, she added, and had to be pro-

tected from militants.

Over the past two years anti-meat

campaigners have been jailed for dam-

aging butcher’s shop in Lille and others

have been prosecuted for wrecking

farm equipment.

Conservative media back the police,

accusing the court of ignoring the law

to give political support to activists.

The police and Gendarmerie must

detect potential threats to public order,

supporters of the government said.

ly, who has been a victim,” Roxane Viel,

one of the five, said.

Israeli researchers produced a simi-

lar concept in 2012 with a plastic straw

able to detect rape drugs. A group of

American high school students came

up with their own “smart straw” in 2017.

The French government launched a

campaign last week to warn of the

dangers of rape drugs. A total of 94

people filed lawsuits claiming to have

been raped or assaulted after being

given GHB or another drug last year,

compared with 37 in 2020 and 68 in

2019.

Feminists launched an online cam-

paign, Balance ton bar (Report your

bar), that designated nightspots

accused of allowing rape drugs to

circulate last autumn.

Students invent straw to test

nightclub drinks for rape drug

A perfectly poised Roman statue of a Adam Sage Paris
male nude on display in a Minneapolis
museum must be returned to Italy, from
where it was stolen by tomb raiders, a
magistrate near Naples has demanded.
Standing at 6ft 4in, the Doryphoros is
a Roman copy from the 1st or
2nd century BC of a lost bronze by the
ancient Greek sculptor Polykleitos,
who tried to sculpt the perfect male
body in the 5th century BC.
Considered the finest surviving mar-
ble copy of the original Doryphoros, the
Roman statue has pride of place at the
Minneapolis Institute of Art after it was
reportedly purchased in the 1980s for
$2.5 million.
The Italian magistrate has now asked
the US for it to be returned to Italy,
claiming that it was dug up illegally in

Return stolen Roman art, US told

the 1970s at Stabiae, a Roman site

buried by the AD79 eruption of

Mount Vesuvius like its neighbour

Pompeii. Italy’s Carabinieri police

art squad believe that the limbs of

the statue were divided into four

boxes after it was found and smug-

gled to Switzerland. Investiga-

tors have been chasing the

statue ever since it was spotted

in the mid-1980s at a Munich

museum, which purchased it

from the late art dealer Elie

Borowski.

When a request to a

German court to seize the

work was turned down,

police believe Borowski

took it to Israel before it

reappeared in

Minneapolis. The request from prose-

cutors for its return rests in part on old

Polaroid photographs of the statue

taken shortly after it was found,

which show the limbs encrusted

with earth and vegetation.

Investigators say that the photos

prove the statue was dug up

on Italian soil and rule out

reports that it was found at

sea, which would make it

harder for Italy to estab-

lish ownership.

Italy has scored a series

of victories in its attempt

to take back precious artefacts

looted from its archaeological sites

and sold in the US. In December the

US handed over 200 pieces valued

at a total of $10 million, which were

seized from collectors and muse-

ums. “Now it’s up to the diplomats,”

one of the investigators said.

Italy
Tom Kington Rome

A straw capable of detecting rape drugs

has been created by French students as

concerns grow over sexual assaults in

nightclubs.

The third-year language and inter-

national business students from the

University of Nantes in west France say

their concept involves reusable stain-

less-steel straws with a yellow ring that

turns dark green when in contact with

gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB),

the most common rape drug.

Five students had the idea after being

asked to draw up a business plan for an

innovative product in their studies. “We

thought that marketing an anti-drug

straw would be a good idea because we

all know someone, directly or indirect-

The Doryphoros is a Roman

copy of a lost Greek bronze

A

diving trip off
the Bahamas,
advertised as
a chance to
“make friends
with sharks”, ended with
a man being airlifted to
hospital after he was
bitten by one (Jacqui
Goddard writes).
The 51-year-old was
stable in Miami’s
Jackson Memorial
Hospital yesterday.
He had been taking
part in a six-day, $3,250-
a-head trip to interact
with tiger sharks and
great hammerheads off
Bimini before being
evacuated from the

Shear Water. The 65ft

ship is owned by the

conservationist Jim

Abernethy, 65, who runs

cage-free dive

encounters with sharks.

The coast guard said

they were contacted by

the Shear Water saying

“a man had been bitten

while fishing and that a

tourniquet had been

placed on the man’s arm

to prevent blood loss”.

Petty Officer Jose

Hernandez, of the coast

guard, said: “It was

reported to us that a

passenger aboard the

Shear Water was reeling

in their line, he reached

for ignoring standard

safety practices.

In 2011 Abernethy,

who has said his chief

concern was to highlight

the plight of sharks,

whose numbers have

fallen nearly 80 per cent

in the past half-century,

was airlifted from the

Shear Water himself

after he was bitten by a

shark. His company says

Abernethy’s crew teach

divers “to make friends

with sharks using

affection, rather than

food”.

Jim Abernethy’s Scuba

Adventures did not reply

to calls and messages.

down to lift it out of the

water when a shark

came up and bit his arm.”

A surgeon recommended

a medical evacuation

and the coast guard sent

a helicopter. Video

showed the victim

winched off the boat in a

metal rescue cot, with

his left arm in bandages.

Abernethy’s Scuba

Adventures advertises

“up close and personal

encounters” with sharks.

Abernethy describes

himself as a “passionate

crusader” for sharks. But

he has faced criticism. In

2008, Markus Groh, an

Austrian diver, died from

a shark bite on one of

Abernethy’s trips. The

Bahamas Dive

Association had attacked

him before the incident

Coast guards rescued a

man off the Bahamas after

he was bitten by a shark.

Video showed him winched

off the expedition boat

with his left arm bandaged

Florida

Miami

50 miles

The

Bahamas

Bimini

U.S. COAST GUARD SOUTH EAST

Man bitten ‘making

friends with sharks’