Freed activist Bove takes on a new cause

Minutes after his release from jail yesterday, the anti-globalisation campaigner José Bové took up the cause of France's prisoners.

Addressing an impromptu rally across the road from his jail, Mr Bové declared: "The government says it is getting in touch with French people on the ground. I bring news from the lower-ground." The spokesman for the Confédération Paysanne told some 4,000 supporters gathered outside Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone jail near Montpellier in south-west France: "There are rats in the cells, there is screaming all night. It is impossible to sleep."

He said the prison system was nonsensical. "It doesn't exist to reform [prisoners]; you come out in the same situation as when you went in but with added hatred within."

Mr Bové was jailed on 19 June after being found guilty of damaging a McDonald's outlet in August 1999. His three-month sentence was reduced for good behaviour.

He said he would spend August on his farm in Larzac with his partner, Ghislaine, before returning to campaigning in the autumn. He faces another court case and a possible 14-month sentence for damaging transgenic crops at Montpellier and Nérac.