• Wednesday while the "camping of plane trees" was back in Vendine, construction equipment and gendarmerie landed. Thomas Brail was arrested and indicted the same day.
  • Opponents continue to protest against the A69 project linking Toulouse to Castres.
  • Released, Thomas Brail will be summoned in June before the prosecutor's office.

The tug-of-war continues. The climbing leader of the National Group of Tree Surveillance (GNSA) was arrested and taken into custody by the gendarmes on Wednesday, May 24 while opponents of the A69 motorway project between Toulouse and Castres reinstalled their camp in Vendine.

The opponent of the controversial project of highway Toulouse-Castres, placed in custody Wednesday, was released Thursday without having been indicted, said the prosecutor, while other activists are still camping near the site.

Thomas Brail, of the National Group for Monitoring Trees (GNSA), who had participated in a previous camp in April and then installed tents in plane trees threatened with uprooting in Vendine (Tarn), was taken Wednesday by the gendarmes for "obstruction of the construction site", according to the prosecutor of Toulouse, Samuel Vuelta-Simon.


THE BUTCHERS AT WORK, ILLEGALLY🪵 #NGE-Atosca, concessionaire of the #autoroute #Castres-#Toulouse, sent @BrailThomas into custody for obstruction of the site while it alerted them to the serious mistake they were about to make... SHAME ON THEM
1/2 pic.twitter.com/wV3fdy3MYe

— The Way is Free✊🌍✊ (@LaVoieEstLibre_) May 24, 2023

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The opponent summoned in June

Brail told AFP on Thursday that he had been summoned to appear before the prosecutor's office in early June to be offered sanctions, such as community service or a fine. However, he intends to "refuse, to go before the court and exchange with the judge," he said.

"It's sad," said Mr. Brail, for whom "it is often those who are for the protection of the living who are in custody and the destroyers are outside."

According to Thomas Digard, of the collective La voie est libre, opponents of the A69 project are still camping in Vendine, after moving a few meters so as not to obstruct the site.

On April 22, during a festive mobilization, but under close surveillance, several thousand opponents to the construction of this 53 km stretch of motorway had demonstrated in Saïx, in the Tarn, to denounce this project that they consider contradictory with the climate emergency.

On the other hand, several local elected officials support the project, which would reduce by about twenty minutes in 2025 the Castres-Toulouse journey, which is a little more than an hour today.

  • Society
  • A69 motorway project
  • Toulouse
  • Haute-Garonne
  • Occitania
  • Midi-Pyrénées
  • Castres
  • Tarn
  • Justice
  • Environment
  • Ecology
  • Planet