Four people have gone on on trial in Paris over the 2013 horsemeat scandal in Europe.<\/p>\n
Two former managers of French meat-processing firm Spanghero are accused, along with two Dutch meat traders.<\/p>\n
They are accused of using cheap horsemeat in beef products that were sold across Europe.<\/p>\n
One Frenchman denies knowing he was being sold horse, Reuters news agency reports, but one of the traders says he knew what he what he was buying.<\/p>\n
It was not immediately clear how the other defendants would plead.<\/p>\n
Millions of meals were withdrawn from supermarket shelves after they were found to contain horse instead of beef.<\/p>\n
The Irish authorities found in early 2013 that horsemeat had been used in frozen burgers labelled as “pure beef”.<\/p>\n
The four men are accused of helping organise the sale of more than 500 tonnes of horsemeat in 2012-2013 to a subsidiary of Comigel, a French company whose frozen meals were sold in more than a dozen European countries.<\/p>\n
Investigations at the time found that horsemeat had originated from Romanian abattoirs via two companies based in Cyprus and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
It was then labelled incorrectly as beef. Spanghero and the Dutch middlemen are accused of pocketing the resulting profits.<\/p>\n
The accused, who include Spanghero’s former managing director, Jacques Poujol, as well as the manager of its factory, Patrice Monguillon, face a range of serious fraud charges.<\/p>\n
Mr Poujol’s lawyer says his client did not know he was being sold horsemeat.<\/p>\n
But the defence for meat trader Johannes Fasen, who is on trial with fellow trader Hendricus Windmeijer, argues he was openly selling horsemeat.<\/p>\n
“My client sold the horsemeat to Mr Poujol because he ordered horsemeat. He sold the horsemeat to Poujol at horsemeat price and Spanghero sold it on as beef at 1.50 euros a kilo more,” the lawyer is quoted as saying by Reuters.<\/p>\n
The four men face up to 10 years in jail and a fine of \u20ac1m (\u00a3900,000).<\/p>\n
The trial is expected to run until mid-February.<\/p>\n
Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"