The justice system has not understood a thing about the dangers that face us all. Bov returned to France from Mexico for the verdict. He had joined Zapatista rebel leader Subcommander Marcos on his triumphal march on Mexico City. Bov announced immediate plans on Thursday to appeal against the sentence, one of three hanging over him for protests that have propelled him to international prominence. Opponents of GM crops fear they may spread modified genes, with the risk of harming insects and humans, and spur the creation of pesticide-resistant superweeds.
Supporters say they are needed to develop hardier crop types to help feed the poor.
The prosecution wants the jail term doubled. Bov wants it quashed but says he is not afraid to go to jail and will march there from his sheep farm if ordered behind bars. The same court will also rule whether a lower chamber was right not to convict Bov and eight others for having locked up French farm ministry officials in an office during another protest in March 1999. Bov 's jovial style and fluent English, learned as a child while his parents studied at Berkeley, California, have helped him become a star at anti-globalisation protests from Seattle to Davos since the McDonald's incident. He joined poor Brazilian farmers in January in uprooting rows of genetically modified soybeans at an experimental farm owned by U.S.-based Monsanto.