EDF, the French energy company, has been fined €1.5 million and its head and deputy-head of nuclear operations have been jailed over its use of Kargus (a private security firm run by a French ex-secret service operative) to use illegal surveillance techniques against Greenpeace. I recently switched away from EDF at home and at the office (they were the energy company when we moved it) over their unbelievably awful customer service (we switched to Good Energy, who’ve been great) but I’m also glad to be shut of them now that I know they’re run by evil crooks.
Adelaide Colin, communications director for Greenpeace in France, said the decision “sends a strong signal to the nuclear industry: no-one is above the law”.
The Tribunal Correctionel de Nanterre heard that Kargus Consultants, then run by a former member of the French foreign secret service, had compiled a dossier on Greenpeace via means that included hacking into a computer belonging to former campaigns head Yannick Jadot.
EDF maintained that it had just asked Kargus to monitor the activists, and that the consultants had exceeded their remit.
But justice Isabelle Prevost-Desprez disagreed, handing three-year sentences to Pascal Durieux and Pierre-Paul Francois, head and deputy head of EDF’s nuclear security operation.
EDF fined for spying on Greenpeace nuclear campaign