A prosecutor aiming to punish France's anti-globalisation hero Jose Bove for ransacking a McDonald's restaurant in the French town of Millau, urged a court today to double his sentence to six months in jail.
Prosecutor Michel Legrand said the court had to uphold the law even if Bove and his radical supporters justified their act in the name of a political cause.
Bove, who yesterday compared his sacking of the hamburger restaurant to the 1789 storming of the Bastille, described the requested sentence as stiff but said he was ready to go to jail.
Thousands of supporters gave Bove and nine-co defendants a hero's welcome of chants and whistles when they left the court sporting trademark yellow scarves.
"I'm not in jail yet, so we'll see what happens later," said Bove, adding he would face 16 months in jail if all charges from various cases against him were upheld.
The 47-year-old sheep farmer, whose walrus moustache evokes the French comic hero Asterix, was sentenced last year to three months in jail for his 1999 assault on the McDonald's outlet in nearby Millau. The prosecutor said this was too lenient.
Bove, who launched the attack on the McDonald's restaurant to protest against US tariffs on delicacies such as Roquefort cheese - a local speciality - and foie gras, is due to hear his fate on March 22.
Bove is becoming something of a regular at the Montpellier court. Last week he was tried with two others on charges of destroying bio-engineered rice plants at a nearby research institute in 1999. Prosecutors demanded a three-month prison term for the attack and a verdict is pending.