French baker risks jail sentence in China over expired flour

A French baker has been arrested and jailed in China after being accused of using out-of-date flour by health inspectors and police, his family said on Wednesday as they publicized a campaign to free him.

Published: 16 August 2017 16:31 CEST

French baker risks jail sentence in China over expired flour

File photo of a baker preparing bread: AFP

Laurent Fortin, 48, was detained in March in Shanghai at the trendy Farine bakery and coffee shop where he had been working since the end of 2016 after moving to China to take up a new job.

Health inspectors allegedly discovered out-of-date flour during a raid on the outlet and a company warehouse. Six Chinese staff were arrested as well as Fortin.

The owner of the group, a successful local French entrepreneur named Franck Pecol, was not in China at the time of the arrests and is believed to be in France.

“We demand the immediate liberation of Laurent as well as the involvement of the French government,” said a petition started on the change.org site by Fortin's family.

His brother, David Fortin, told AFP that the arrested baker had been held in tough conditions without a bed or chair at the start of his time in jail.

If convicted, he faces between a year and 15 years in prison “even though he was just an employee of the company,” his mother told the Paris Normandie newspaper.

The state-run Shanghai Daily newspaper said that Fortin was the production manager for the chain, which has four other outlets.

The shops run by Farine, which means “flour” in French, are popular hangouts for expats and wealthy Chinese consumers in Shanghai, offering traditional French breads and pastries.

The arrests came after a former employee at the chain posted allegations and video on the Chinese social media platform Weibo alleging that Farine was using out-of-date flour imported from France.

The report – released on the eve of the World Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia – documents a 13 percent jump in anti-LGBTQ offences from 2022.

More serious crimes including assaults, threats, and harassment saw a 19 percent increase, with 2,870 instances recorded by French authorities.

“It feels like the embers of LGBTI-phobia have been lit, and now the fire is ready to take hold,” said president of French activist group SOS Homophobie Julia Torlet.

“What worries us most are the emerging trends…we are extremely concerned,” Torlet added, saying “if the government doesn’t act” France risks backsliding into the violence seen in 2013 over the legalisation of same-sex marriage.

The number of anti-LGBTQ incidents has risen sharply – about 17 percent on average each year for crimes and misdemeanours – since 2016, according to the interior ministry.

But these figures only paint part of the picture.

Men account for the majority of both victims and perpetrators in anti-LGBTQ incidents, accounting for 70 and 82 percent, respectively.

Moreover, the perpetrators are predominately young, with nearly half of all accused under 30 and more than a third under 19, says the report.

While the report says victims are now “better received” by authorities, only 20 percent of those subjected to threats or violence and five percent of victims of verbal abuse file a complaint.

“We’re past the worry stage,” spokesman for Stop Homophobie Maxime Haes told AFP.

Anti-LGBTQ acts are linked to the “drastic increase in LGBT-phobic discourse,” said Haes, which he says are fuelled by “the rise of the far right and religious extremism”.

The owner of a bar in Nantes, a city in western France, told regional newspaper Ouest-France it cancelled an LGBTQ-friendly event in early May over safety concerns after a poster featuring individuals in religious habits sparked an “outpouring of hate” online.

And in France, 60 percent of people avoid holding hands with same-sex partners for fear of being assaulted, according to a 2024 report from the European Agency for Fundamental Rights.

The country has also seen a spike in transphobic discourse, Haes said.

SOS Homophobie has denounced what it calls “abysmal government silence” and criticised the lack of “ambitious policy” on LGBTQ issues even after the appointment of out gay Prime Minister Gabriel Attal earlier this year.

“Hate speech is not being combatted at all by politicians,” Haes of Stop Homophobie added.