The French anti-globalisation activist jailed for tearing down a McDonald's outlet under construction in 1999 was released from prison this morning.
Mr Jose Bove, renowned for his opposition to multinational companies and US trade policies, was jailed on June 19th to serve a three-month sentence in Villeneuve-les-Maguelone, a suburb outside the southern city of Montpellier.
He arrived to begin his sentence on a tractor, heading a convoy of protesting farmers.
He signed papers yesterday cutting four weeks off his sentence - two for good behaviour and two linked to a national post-election pardon granted by President Mr Jacques Chirac.
Some 300 supporters from Mr Bove's Confederation Paysanne farmers' union gathered at the prison to welcome him upon his release.
Mr Bove and a group of other farmers, angry with punitive US trade tariffs on French goat cheese exports, used tractors to tear apart a McDonald's restaurant being built in the southern town of Millau in 1999.
AFP