Bové ordered back to jail for destroying field of GM crops

France's most senior appeals court ruled yesterday that Jose Bové, the militant farmer and anti-globalisation activist, should go to jail for 14 months for destroying genetically modified (GM)crops.

The walrus-moustached, pipe-smoking Bové, called the Robin Hood of France and celebrated for high-profile campaigning against what he regards as sub-quality food, said he would ask President Jacques Chirac for a pardon. He told reporters: "Of course we cannot ask [Chirac] to overturn the verdict, but he has the power to stop the sentence being applied. The ball is in his court now."

The Cour de Cassation in Paris ruled that Bové must serve six months and pay a €7,622 (£4,800) fine for a 1999 attack on a field of GM rice grown for research near the southern city of Montpellier. The decision automatically meant Bové, who spent six weeks in jail earlier this year for smashing up a McDonald's restaurant, must also serve a separate eight-month sentence for an earlier attack on GM crops in France. The sentences could start as early as this week.

Bové's lawyer said several "personalities" were writing to the authorities to ask for clemency for the media-smart sheep farmer. He and his followers have led a series of attacks on GM crops in France in recent years. He is spokesman for the radical farmers' union, Confederation Paysanne.

Bové wore a girl's frock to one court hearing as a traditional peasant protest and rode to prison atop a tractor this year to begin the previous jail term.

GM crops are common in the United States, but France and other European countries remain highly suspicious of genetic technology in agriculture. Confederation Paysanne says the risk of cross-pollination between natural crops and what Bové calls "seeds of death" is underestimated.

France grows experimental GM crops on 100 sites, all approved by the Farm Ministry. Supporters say the crops could lead to the development of hardier strains to help feed the world's poor. Opponents say they could trigger an uncontrolled spread of modified genes, harming insects and humans, and they point to polls showing widespread public resistance.

Bové's lawyers have tried to argue that fear of a health risk justifies citizens taking the law into their own hands. The judges said Bové and fellow protesters Rene Riesel and Dominique Soullie, who were also jailed, had many means of expression at their disposal in France's democratic society without attacking the crops.