A French court has found seven activists, including two Swiss nationals, guilty of helping migrants enter France illegally from Italy last spring. On Thursday, the Gap Criminal Court in southeast France handed two French defendants, who had previous convictions, 12-month sentences, of which four months are to be carried out behind bars. The other five - two French nationals, one Italian, one Swiss and one Belgian-Swiss with no criminal records - were each given six-month suspended sentences. They have ten days to appeal. Around 100 people gathered outside the courthouse on Thursday to support the activists, aged between 22 and 52, and known as the "Briançon Seven". They were among a group of 100 mostly French and Italian activists, who took part in a demonstration march on April 22 from Clavière in Italy to Briançon in France, crossing the Montgenèvre pass at the Italian border with around 20 illegal migrants. The prosecutor’s office accused the seven activists of ...
