EDF Energy fined for spying

EDF Energy has been fined €1.5m and two of its senior staff sent to prison for spying on environmental campaigners. A French court found that EDF employed a security firm, Kargus, to spy on Greenpeace activists as they campaigned against nuclear reactors in the country five years ago. Activities included the illegal hacking of private information held on the computers of Greenpeace staff, resulting in EDF obtaining hundreds of documents. Though the company said it had merely asked Kargus to monitor the activists, Pascal Durieux and Pierre-Paul Francois, head and deputy head of EDF’s nuclear security respectively, were handed three-year sentences. Both will also have to pay compensation to Greenpeace.