Europe

French farmer convicted for helping migrants

Associated Press
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FILE - In this Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2017 file picture, Cedric Herrou, a French activist farmer who faces up to five years in prison as he goes on trial accused of helping African migrants cross the border from Italy, waits outside the Nice courthouse, southern France. Cedric Herrou remains defiant: Ahead of a court ruling that could see him jailed for sheltering migrants, the French activist has more arrivals from Africa staying on his farm. (AP Photo/Claude Paris, File) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2017 file picture, Cedric Herrou, center, a French activist farmer who faces up to five years in prison as he goes on trial accused of helping African migrants cross the border from Italy, arrives at the Nice courthouse, southern France. Cedric Herrou remains defiant: Ahead of a court ruling that could see him jailed for sheltering migrants, the French activist has more arrivals from Africa staying on his farm. (AP Photo/Claude Paris, File) (The Associated Press)

A French activist farmer has been convicted of helping migrants enter, travel and stay in France and given a suspended, 3,000-euro fine.

The case has called attention to those who have resisted Europe's anti-migrant sentiment and are offering food, lodging or other aid to people from impoverished or war-torn countries.

There has notably been an outpouring of support in the Roya valley in the Alps, where Cedric Herrou has taken in dozens of migrants over the past year.

Herrou has called it an act of humanity and not a crime, and says it is his civic duty to keep helping the migrants.

On Friday, he still had teenagers from Sudan and Eritrea staying in caravans on his farm.