14 DAY TRIAL // Électricité de France (EDF) was fined $2 million (€1.5 million) and some of its staff members were sentenced to jail after a court of law in Paris concluded that the company hacked into Greenpeace's computer network in the effort of stopping an operation against their nuclear plants.
The nuclear energy firm is one of the biggest nuclear energy suppliers in the world, British Energy being owned by them, reports The Guardian.
Everything began in 2004 when EDF started spying on the eco-friendly organization to see what they have planned for them.
In 2006 things went even further when the company hired a detective agency run by a former member of the French secret services to spy on them to find out how Greenpeace plans on blocking the construction of new nuclear plants in the UK.
At the time, 1,400 documents were stolen from a computer belonging to Yannick Jadot who was the campaigns director of Greenpeace at the time.
As a result of the trial, fines and jail sentences were thrown left and right. Pascal Durieux, the head of the nuclear protection security in 2006 and the person responsible for requesting the hack, was given a three-year sentence, two of which with suspension, and a $13,000 (€ 10,000) fine.
The head of Kargus Consultants, the firm that handled the actual hacking, got the same jail sentence but his fine was reduced to $5,200 (€ 4,000).
Also, Greenpeace will receive a financial compensation from EDF representing $650,000 (€ 500,000) for the damages caused by the cybercriminal operation.
"The fine and the damages awarded send a strong signal to the nuclear industry that nobody is above the law," revealed Adélaïde Colin, representing Greenpeace France. "In the runup to the next presidential elections … voters should keep this scandal in mind."