On 22 September a judge in the Criminal Court of Paris found Marc Fellous guilty of forgery and the use of forgery in order to defame Prof Gilles-Eric Séralini and CRIIGEN, a research association which focuses on the risks of genetic engineering and pesticides and the development of alternatives.
Marc Fellous is a GMO proponent who was formerly President of the Biomolecular Engineering Commission (CGB), which assessed the safety of GMOs in France for the ministries of agriculture and environment from 1998 to 2007. In 2016 he became president of the French Association for Plant Biotechnology, a lobby group that was set up to promote GM crops.
Last November Fellous lost a libel case to Séralini. The court ruled that Fellous had defamed Séralini.