Yellow Vest protesters tried over 2018 ransacking of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris

The French trial of ten Yellow Vest protesters accused of ransacking the Arc de Triomphe during a violent uprising in 2018 began in Paris on Monday. 

Yellow Vest protesters and police clash at the iconic Arc de Triomphe in Paris, December 2018. AFP

The famous monument suffered millions of euros worth of damage when hundreds of anti-government protesters took to the streets of the capital on 1 December, burning buildings and cars, and looting shops.

A security perimeter around the monument was quickly broken as demonstrators stormed the building, singing the Marseillaise around the flame of the Unknown Soldier, ransacking the souvenir store, and covering the building with slogans denouncing President Emmanuel Macron.

A beheaded marble bust of Napoleon was among several important artworks that were vandalised.  

"The yellow vests truimph" - graffiti on the Arc de Triomphe. Photo: RFI/Daniel Finnan

Of the eight men and two women appearing in court this week, none are considered to be leaders of the grassroots Yellow Vest movement, nor instigators of the violence. They do not have criminal records.

“This is the trial of the small fish; the big fish are not there,” Véronique Massi, a lawyer for one of the defendants, told France Info radio. 

Procès du saccage de l'Arc-de-Triomphe en 2018 : "Les gros poissons ne sont pas là"https://t.co/cn5o52RrOY pic.twitter.com/rm0UfGol35

— franceinfo (@franceinfo) March 22, 2021

Four will be tried for the damage committed inside the monument, where they say they took shelter in an effort to protect themselves from tear gas fired by police.

• The rise and fall of France's Yellow Vests – what remains after two years?

• Two police officers to be charged over Yellow Vest violence

One of the defendants admitted throwing a beer bottle at the entrance of the Arc de Triomphe, while the DNA of another was found on a piece of broken statue. The third was caught on film trying to break a door with a fire extinguisher, and a fourth will be tried by a juvenile court.

Although more than 400 people were arrested in Paris on the day of the protests, the main perpetrators of the violence have never been identified.

The trial will run until Friday.