Beaten while filming a wild dump near Sète: Christian Puech “combative” before the trial

Le militant écologiste Christian Puech, juste après son agression. D.R.

Postponed to June, the trial of the alleged attacker of Christian Puech must be held this Wednesday, January 10 before the Montpellier court.

Seven months after the trial was postponed, environmental activist Christian Puech and his alleged attacker are back before the Montpellier judicial court this Wednesday, January 10. That is, more than two years after the attack that the ecologist based in Montbazin, in Hérault, suffered on May 25, 2021 while at the time. he was trying to film the perpetrator of a wild dump.

Yet another dumping of rubble in the middle of the scrubland against which Christian Puech, 79, wanted to fight by filming the offender. Spotted, he was severely beaten and left for dead near his home, then hospitalized for "six fractures to the head and tibia, with loss of consciousness". The victim was then recognized a man on social networks, and had provided his identity to the gendarmes of the Pézenas research brigade.

Return of the trial to last June

Summoned for the first time by the courts on June 14, the alleged perpetrator of the attack, a 32-year-old from Sétois, appeared without a lawyer. As he has done since his arrest, the young man had refuted any involvement before the trial was postponed. Which provoked the anger of Christian Puech's lawyer, Me Darrigade: "We are taken for imbeciles. This is inappropriate levity in a matter that is not!"

I hope that justice will take into account both aspects of this case

"There is personal harm, but above all there is a broader fight against this national scourge of illegal dumping. And I will remain combative, I owe it to future generations. I hope that justice will take into account the two aspects of this affair, explains Christian Puech. If I took my camera, it is because without proof the public authorities can do nothing. And it was to destroy the images that this person jumped on me. I had already made several reports in the sector…' ;quot;

The commune of Montbazin civil party

Josian Ribes, the mayor of Montbazin, will be present this Wednesday in the courtroom of the Montpellier court, as he was during the first trial. To support its citizens, but also to try to make the harm represented by illegal dumping heard for its municipality, and beyond. "Waste is everywhere in nature! And despite our mobilization, it is very difficult to fight against these deposits in real time. It's a scourge that costs a lot of money and affects everyone, explains the mayor. Proof that the subject is sensitive, the elected officials of Sète Agglopôle Méditerranée refused to vote for the increase in the special waste tax (+23%) for professionals and the illegal dumping tax charged to town halls. Extremely rare fact.

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