On 11 November 2008, French police arrested nine left-wing activists in Paris, Rouen, and Tarnac during an investigation into horseshoe-shaped iron bars placed on overhead electrical lines serving France’s TGV network. The disruptions in late October and early November delayed roughly 160 trains. Prosecutors charged the group with “criminal association for the purposes of terrorist activity,” relying heavily on police surveillance, including the fact that Julien Coupat and Yildune Lévy had been driving near a sabotage site on the night of 7–8 November. Authorities also cited the group’s alleged links to the anonymous Invisible Committee and its 2007 tract The Coming Insurrection, which discussed disrupting infrastructure.
The case deteriorated as prosecutors struggled to connect the defendants to the sabotage and acknowledged that the method was disruptive rather than capable of causing injuries. Magistrate Thierry Fragnoli recused himself in April 2012, and magistrate Jeanne Duyé ordered the terrorism charges dropped on 7 August 2015; France’s supreme court upheld that decision. On 12 April 2018, the defendants were acquitted of the principal sabotage and conspiracy charges. Coupat and Lévy received no sentence after convictions for refusing DNA testing, while another defendant received a minor conviction for handling stolen goods and attempted document falsification. The proceedings became a prominent example of disputed counterterrorism surveillance and prosecutorial overreach.
