BioWorld International Correspondent

PARIS - Anti-GMO activists in France won an unprecedented legal victory when a court in Orléans acquitted 49 self-confessed raiders of fields of genetically modified corn.

Charged with destroying several fields planted with Monsanto GM corn in 2004 and 2005, the defendants told the court that "they committed a deliberate act of criminal damage to the property of another in response to a state of necessity" - and the court accepted that defense.

The court said that the "necessity arises from the uncontrolled dissemination of modified genes, which represent a present and imminent danger for the property of others, in the sense that it can be the source of an unwanted contamination and pollution." It added that Monsanto's full-field trial "did not offer sufficient guarantees of environmental protection."

It is the first time that such a defense successfully has been used in France, and the public prosecutor immediately announced that his office and Monsanto would appeal the ruling.

The defendants decided that the court's decision implied that Monsanto had acted illegally, while their lawyer, Antoine Comte, said, "The court recognized the risk of a serious and imminent threat to public health."

Defendant Jean-Emile Sanchez, a member of the Confédération Paysanne, a small farmers' lobby led by José Bové that is a prominent campaigner against GM crops and food, said: "This is a major victory for anti-GMO activists. It is the first time that defendants in such a case have been acquitted. The decision should set a legal precedent."

Sanchez faced a three-month jail sentence, since he already had been convicted for two similar offenses.